One reason why humans are special and unique...

[Jangler]

We masturbate. A lot.

There must be something in the water here in Lanesboro, Minnesota, because last night I dreamt of an encounter with a very muscular African-American centaur, an orgiastic experience with – gasp – drunken members of the opposite sex and (as if that weren’t enough) then being asked by my hostess to wear a white wedding dress while giving a scientific keynote presentation. “Does it make me look too feminine?” “Not at all,” she assured me, “it’s a man’s dress.”

This conjuring ability to create fantasy scenes in our heads that literally bring us to orgasm when conveniently paired with our dextrous appendages is an evolutionary magic trick that I suspect is uniquely human. It requires a cognitive capacity called mental representation (an internal “re-presentation” of a previously experienced image or some other sensory input) that many evolutionary theorists believe is a relatively recent hominid innovation.

When it comes to sex, we put this capacity to very good—or at least, very frequent—use. In a now-classic, pre-Internet-porn (I’ll get to that later on) study by British evolutionary biologists Robin Baker and Mark Bellis, male university students were found to masturbate to ejaculation about every 72 hours, and “on the majority of occasions, their last masturbation is within 48 hours of their next in-pair copulation.” If they’re not having intercourse every day, that is to say, men tend to pleasure themselves to completion no more than two days prior to having actual sex.

Baker and Bellis’s quite logical argument for this seemingly counterintuitive state of affairs (after all, shouldn’t men try to stock up as much sperm as possible in their testes rather than spill their seeds so wastefully in a rather infertile swath of toilet paper or a dirty sock?) is that because there is a “shelf-life” for sperm cells – they remain viable for only 5-7 days after production – and because adult human males manufacture a whopping 3 million sperm per day, masturbation is an evolved strategy for shedding old sperm while making room for new, fitter sperm. It’s quality over quantity. Here are the adaptive logistics.

The advantage to the male could be that the younger sperm are more acceptable to the female and/or are better able to reach a secure position in the female tract. Moreover, once retained in the female tract, younger sperm could be more fertile in the absence of sperm competition [sexually monogamous relationships] and/or more competitive in the presence of sperm competition [in which the woman is having sex with other men]. Finally, if younger sperm live longer in the female tract, any enhanced fertility and competitiveness would also last longer.

more...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=one-reason-why-humans-are-special-a-2010-06-22

[Guild]

We aren't the only animals that do this.

[Hawk]

I think monkeys do it more than most of us...and then throw it at people walking by...thats pretty special and unique

[The Saltman]

i must be pretty special then

[LiQuiD]

Excellent article. I think it's especially true about how the availability of online porn and nothing being left to the imagination anymore.

[g5jamz]

where's my frog!

[SorthNarolina]

bonobo monkeys fug and masturbate all day long.

[Carolina Husker]

Well consider me an amateur scientist.

[88 Bronco]

Knuckle children ftw

[theedaddy]

[PanthaSan]

*goes to get a frog*

[cookinwithgas]

male university students were found to masturbate to ejaculation about every 72 hours

why would someone masturbate but not to ejaculation?

[cookinwithgas]

And SouthCak, I was not the one that told them about that fantasy of yours.

[cookinwithgas]

in fact please refrain from telling me about them from now on. After a six pack it sounded almost reasonable, and I apologize for telling you to send that one into Penthouse Letters.