The toothpick: Almost 2 million years old

Digitally reassembled jawbones from an extinct species of hominid that populated Dmanisi, Georgia, roughly 1.8 million years ago. The arrow in the top left jaw indicates a lesion made by frequent toothpick use. (PNAS / October 4, 2013)

Say what you will about early Pleistocene man, he sure liked to keep his teeth clean -- or at least as clean as he could get them with a toothpick.

In a study published recently in the journal PNAS, authors presented new evidence of "habitual use" of toothpicks by early man 1.8 million years ago.

After examining a handful of fossilized jawbones and teeth unearthed in the Caucusus country of Georgia, researchers suggested that one mandible in particular, D2735, belonged to an inveterate tooth-picker.

Citing a series of horizontal grooves left on the surface of one molar, as well as a gap between the tooth and jawbone, lead author Ann Margvelashvili, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Zurich, wrote that the habit likely caused harm to the picker's gums.

"Toothpicking in this individual likely served to remove nutritional leftovers," Margvelashvili and her colleagues wrote. "But it caused visible damage." [... ] latimes.com/

This ancient hominid jaw has marks suggesting it experienced toothpicking.
Credit: Georgian National Museum. / livescience.com