Oldest Human Custom (Toothpicks)

New Scientist ^ | 11-5-2003 | Charles Choi

[blam]

Public release date: 5-Nov-2003

Contact: Claire Bowles
claire.bowles@rbi.co.uk
44-207-331-2751
New Scientist

Oldest human custom

EVEN early humans knew a thing or two about dental hygiene. Our ancestors used grass stalks as tooth picks, experimental findings suggest. The teeth of ancient hominids commonly have curved grooves on their roots. It has been suggested that these marks were made by an implement used to pick teeth. But critics of this theory point out that the teeth of today's regular toothpick users have no such marks.

Resolving this conundrum has surprisingly wide implications. Similar grooves have been found on fossil teeth dating back 1.8 million years. If the individuals made them by using toothpicks, the habit would qualify as the oldest human custom yet recorded. It could also reveal details about ancient diets and oral health. To help settle the debate, palaeontologist Leslea Hlusko of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hit upon grass stalks as likely to have left the mystery grooves. Unlike wood, grass contains large numbers of hard, abrasive silica particles.

This may explain the grooves seen on ancient teeth. And grass stalks are the right size to leave the marks, between 1.5 to2.6 millimetres wide, that have been found on ancient teeth. Hlusko spent 8 hours grinding a piece of grass along a tooth taken from a baboon. She then replicated the experiment for 3 hours on a modern human tooth. In both, the grass left marks almost identical to those seen in scanning electron microscopic images of early hominid teeth (Current Anthropology,vol 44, p 738).

### Author: Charles Choi

New Scientist issue: 8 November 2003

PLEASE MENTION NEW SCIENTIST AS THE SOURCE OF THIS STORY AND, IF PUBLISHING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A HYPERLINK TO: http://www.newscientist.com.

[blam]

Ping.

[ghost of nixon]

I hear wolly mammoth is very stringy - toothpicks would have been in high demand

[RightWhale]

Tool use. Could this have been the birth of civilization: bone or wooden toothpicks?

[No Blue States]

"Hlusko spent 8 hours grinding a piece of grass along a tooth taken from a baboon. She then replicated the experiment for 3 hours on a modern human tooth"

Man 11 hrs of doing that cant be much fun.. Im sure early people picked their teeth, and with whatever was handy to get that jerky unstuck. And probably not as a custom but because like to us it bothersome.. I would think a small broken twig with a sharp end would work fine. Heck they may have even flossed with sinew.. these 11 hrs outside would have been better spent looking for a T-Rex head or paleo points.

[RightWhale]

The women would floss while sitting around the hearth gossiping about each other. Day after day gossiping, flossing. Flossing, gossiping. The men would floss while lurking in ambush for their next victim dinner.

[DannyTN]

I bet toilet paper or at least moss was first.

[farmfriend]

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[Age of Reason]

Maybe the fur on the meat they ate got stuck between their teeth, and the grooves came from pulling it out.

[Age of Reason]

I bet toilet paper or at least moss was first.

You know, I suspect that the need for wiping one's behind may not have existed for adults among our prehistoric ancestors.

I suspect our modern diet (especially lack of fiber), obesity (fat cheeks), and not squatting to defecate is what creates messy defecation in most modern humans.

That is, we may not be necessarily doomed to messy defecation because of our large buttock muscles that evolved to support our bipedal ability.

[No Blue States]

heheh

"Round me up some kindling for the fire babe, ive got to go kill us a Wooly mammoth. If anyone comes while im gone just hide in the cave and chunk rocks at them. Here is a spear for hand to hand if it comes to that. Oh yeah, If you get a chance run down to the river and freshen up and put one of your sexy pig skin bikinis on and the great hunter will be back before dark30 to rock your paleo world"

[P.O.E.]

Too Much Information Alert:

After I bite off a fingernail, I find it makes an excellent toothpick. It's curved and pointy, you invert it in four directions to get every nook & cranny.

I've always wondered if teeth and fingernails co-evolved as a result.