Some 46,000 years ago in what is now the Polish highlands, a Neanderthal man got some food stuck between his teeth. So he did what any self-respecting hominin would do—he reached for a toothpick, according to new research.
The new paper, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, describes two teeth found in Stajnia Cave, located in the Polish highlands near Kraków and Częstochowa. The teeth were recovered in 2010 and kept at the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw, and only now have scientists given them a thorough inspection.
A key finding of the new study are a series of toothpick grooves found on one of the teeth, in what is being interpreted as evidence of oral hygiene among Neanderthals. Toothpick grooves in Neanderthal teeth have been discovered before (including in Spain), but the new discovery suggests the practice was widespread among these extinct hominins.
