The First Dentist Was a Neanderthal

So yes, I am gonna be talking about Neanderthals and how they practiced dentistry.

And I don't think a lot of us knew that they actually did, so let me, you know, let's get into this.

So who are the Near- the Neanderthals? So they, you know, their scientific name, Homo neanderthalensis, and they are a hominid species.

You know, they are our relatives.

Um, and it's like y- our human cousins.

As, as, uh, controversial as that can be, that, that's the fact.

[laughs] And they were a species of hominid who e- emerged roughly about 43,000, 430,000 years ago.

They lived in many parts of the world, so from the Atlantic Coast of Wales and Iberia across the Mediterranean and Central Europe, all the way to the Levant, which is, uh, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, in that region, and the icy landscapes of southwestern Siberia.

And they were able to thrive until, in all of these, um, environments, until they disappeared from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago.

So really that's quite, uh, recent, um, in, uh, as far as time goes.

Um, so we do know a lot about our Neanderthal cousins, where they lived, what they ate, uh, what they looked like.

We know about their social life.

We know that they made fire.

We know that they were highly intelligent, you know, so they were quite, you know ...

Th- they have a bit of a bad rap as being, you know, you call someone a Neanderthal like they're stupid.

[laughs]

[laughs] Yeah, that's what they say.

You know? Actually they-

It's not a ...

Mmm, it can be both of us.

It's some Caroline, it's more me.

I know.

I am a Neanderthal.

I, that's my cousin.

I, what do you mean?