Neanderthalers used million years ago toothpicks'

Neanderthalers probably used more than a million years ago toothpicks, according to a new study.

Neanderthalers removed meat and plant debris between their teeth supposedly with pieces of woodthat sometimes splintered in their mouths. This is evident from the excavation of a 1.2 million year old jaw bone of a Neanderthal fraught with the wood fibers. Spanish researchers report the discovery in the journal Naturwissenschaften.

The humanlike-jaw with the wood fibers has been unearthed in the north of Spain. The fibers are mainly in the grooves of the jaw at the bottom of the teeth. That suggests that the wood particles are left behind after using primitive toothpicks. In excavated teeth of Neanderthal are often remnants of toothpicks found, but the oldest evidence for this form of tooth cleaning was so far only 49,000 years old. 

However, the million year old jaw bone has not only provided insights about the use of toothpicks. The scientists were also able to deduce from the remains of dental plaque on the teeth that the Neanderthalers ate a lot of grasses. "It is possible that grasses were swallowed as food," said lead researcher Karen Hardy of the Autonomous University of Barcelona news Phys.org. "Grasses contain namely many seeds you can chew." The remains of these seeds the Neanderthalers removed the presumably with their primitive toothpicks.

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