Scientist gets to the bottom of love!

The 'heart' symbol used to represent love is actually based on the shape of female buttocks, according to a scientist.

Pscychologist Galdino Pranzarone, who studied the origins of Valentine's Day, says the symbol is inspired by a woman's bottom as seen from the rear.

Prof Pranzarone, of Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, told Discovery News that he analyzed "essential literary and speculative evidence from mythology and secondary sources."

"The Greek goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, was beautiful all over, but was unique in that her buttocks were especially beautiful," he said.

"Her shapely rounded hemispheres were so appreciated by the Greeks that they built a special temple Aphrodite Kallipygos, which literally meant, Goddess with the Beautiful Buttocks.

"This was probably the only religious building in the world that was dedicated to buttock worship."

(c) ananova.com