Would you have guessed? This metal has been harming the human body for 2 million years

According to experiments conducted by an Australian research team, a metal that still frequently occurs today and is considered dangerous may have had a severely harmful effect on the health of Neanderthals and other early human ancestors.

When the term caveman comes up, many people immediately picture the Neanderthal. We know quite a lot about this ancient relative of ours — fossil evidence reveals much about both their physical features and their way of life. However, a recent study has shed light on a surprising factor that may have contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals: a substance that not only poses a threat in the modern world but may have affected human health millions of years ago as well, reports Live Science.

Lead poisoning is nothing new

According to findings by a group of Australian researchers, lead has existed in the environment of humans and their ancestors in its natural form for more than two million years, carrying serious health risks. In large quantities, it damages the central nervous system and other vital organs, and it can also cause behavioural and learning disorders, particularly in children.

This might be surprising, as metal poisoning — especially lead poisoning, typically associated with old paints and building materials — is usually thought of as a modern issue. It seems almost hard to imagine that such substances could have harmed our ancient ancestors as well.

According to Renaud Johannes-Boyau, a researcher at an Australian university, phenomena such as prolonged drought, food and water scarcity, or exposure to toxins have a dual nature. While they threaten a species’ survival, they also drive natural selection and enhance adaptability.

They examined tooth remains

During their research, scientists compared 51 different tooth samples, looking for signs of lead contamination. The samples ranged in age from roughly 100,000 to nearly 2 million years old and came from a variety of hominin species — including Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, Australopithecus africanus, and even the extinct ape species Gigantopithecus blacki.