Do I have something in my teeth? Scientists find evidence of tooth picking in earliest humans in China

The scientists were analysing dental fossils to learn about what the earliest humans in China ate

Along the way, the team found scratchings along the teeth that they believe were evidence of picking teeth

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Chinese scientists believe they found one of the oldest examples of the earliest humans picking their teeth. Photo: SCMP composite

Published: 2:00pm, 17 Sep 2022

In the never-ending debate of nature versus nurture, the act of picking our teeth after a meal may be a habit that has been part of human behaviour since the earliest days of our existence.

A new study out of China, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, a peer-reviewed journal, in August, found evidence that those early humans likely rubbed conifer tree fragments between their teeth, likely to pick out food.

The discovery was made during a larger effort to analyse the teeth of people who lived in China between 80,000-120,000 years ago to learn about their diets.

The evidence came in the form of parallel scratches, which the scientists said were “potential tooth picking marks”.

“The coniferous fragments and parallel fine-scratches in the groove indicate that Fuyan Cave hominids habitually rubbed material between their teeth, similar to Neanderthals,” the scientists wrote in the study.

“This is important evidence of tooth-picking behaviour in early modern humans in East Asia.”

Blue arrows point to examples of fossilised plaque that was used to determine what China’s earliest humans likely ate. Photo: Frontiers in Plant Science

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