Neanderthal teeth from different periods have been found in northeastern Spain. Details of the discovery were published in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology on November 10, 2024.1
Neanderthals are one of the most intriguing characters in human history. Every new discovery about them helps us understand our past better. So, what can a few seemingly ordinary teeth tell us about this ancient human species? The Neanderthal teeth found in the Arbreda Cave in Spain provide the answer to this very question.
According to the research, the teeth found in the cave belong to three different individuals. One of these individuals is a child, the other a teenager, and the third an adult. The study reveals that these teeth provide important information not only with their anatomical structures, but also with the time period they belong to. Neanderthal teeth both shed light on the daily lives of these people and allow us to understand their settlement strategies more clearly.
So, what sets these teeth apart from others? According to the article, the Neanderthal teeth in question have unique structural features. For example, the five main cusps seen in one of these teeth bear traces of the Neanderthals’ diet and lifestyle. According to the study, this feature is clearly different from modern human teeth. In fact, while the five-cusps feature is seen at a high rate of 83 percent in Neanderthal samples, this rate is only around 23 percent in modern humans. This is a clear indication that they had a different lifestyle.
Let’s talk a little bit about which individuals the teeth belonged to. According to the research, the child’s milk tooth indicates that he passed away at around 10-12 years of age. The intense melting seen at the root of the tooth shows that the milk tooth entered a transformation process and therefore naturally fell out. The adult individual’s tooth is quite worn down. This proves that it was a molar that was used for many years. What is interesting is that the tooth belonging to the young individual is relatively well preserved. According to the study, this tooth belongs to an individual between the ages of 10-13 and has not yet been completely worn down. This suggests that the tooth may have emerged recently.
According to the article, the layers where the teeth were found correspond to the earliest periods when Neanderthals lived and the extinction processes. For example, the teeth found in layer N date back to a period of approximately 120 thousand years ago, while the teeth found in layer J date back to a more recent period, approximately 40 thousand years ago.
So what else can these teeth tell us? According to the study, Neanderthal teeth carry important clues about their environmental adaptations and dietary habits. For example, the wear and changes in the root structures seen in the teeth indicate a hard and fibrous diet. In addition, microscopic analyses show that the marks on the teeth are due to natural wear, meaning that they used their teeth as a kind of “tool”. This suggests that Neanderthals did not only live a hunter-gatherer life, but also developed survival strategies using tools and equipment.
The study emphasizes another striking aspect of Neanderthal teeth. These teeth may also carry traces about the social structure of Neanderthals. According to the authors of the article, the level of wear on the teeth may be related to the roles of individuals in the community. For example, the extreme wear on the adult’s teeth may indicate that he played an active role in physically demanding activities such as food preparation or hunting.
Of course, the discovery of these teeth has raised new questions in the minds of scientists. For example, the location of the teeth in the cave does not provide a definitive answer as to why these individuals were there. However, the article says that these teeth, together with other findings in the cave, indicate long-term occupation. The area where the teeth were found, especially in layer N, suggests that these individuals used the cave as a long-term living space. In contrast, the tooth in layer J suggests a short-term occupation.
- Lozano, M., Soler, J., López-Onaindia, D., Solés, A., Julià, R., Ceperuelo, D., Lorenzo, C., & Soler, N. (2024). Middle Pleistocene teeth from Arbreda Cave (Serinyà, northeastern Iberian Peninsula). American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 185(4), e25037. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.25037[↩]