Researchers Find Neanderthals May Have Used Toothpicks

LiveScience reported that scientists have “found traces of wood trapped in fossilized plaque stuck to Neanderthal teeth,” indicating Neanderthals may have used “prehistoric toothpicks” to remove bits of food out of their teeth, according to a new study, published in the April issue of the journal Antiquity. A group of scientists led by Anita Radini, an archaeologist at the University of York in the United Kingdom, “examined teeth found at El Sidrón cave in Spain,” finding “bits of nonedible, and noncharred, conifer wood tissue in the plaque.”