Neanderthal Dental Records Shows They Were Taking Prehistoric Aspirin

Paleoanthropology Group MNCN-CSIC

A team led by the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) dug into the hardened gunk of Neanderthal teeth preserved in Europe around 42,000 to 50,000 years ago to extract the genetic material trapped inside.

Dental plaque is a sticky film of proteins and polysaccharides made by our mouth's bacteria to help them stick to your teeth; it's also a material that combines with minerals in your saliva to build into a yellow-brown solid called tartar.

This substance might make your dentist curse, but for those studying the diets of our ancestors, it's a treasure-trove of preserved DNA.

"Dental plaque traps microorganisms that lived in the mouth and pathogens found in the respiratory and gastrointestinal tract, as well as bits of food stuck in the teeth – preserving the DNA for thousands of years," says Laura Weyrich from ACAD.

In this case, the DNA taken from four individuals from cave sites in Spy, Belgium, and El Sidrón in Spain revealed that not only did Neanderthals have radically different culinary cultures, they also probably used plants to treat ailments.

It appears Neanderthals from Spy Cave chowed down on a particularly meaty diet, with DNA matching woolly rhinoceros and wild sheep found embedded in their plaque, as well as evidence of wild mushrooms.

This research was published in Nature