Ancient lead exposure may have helped humans evolve over Neanderthals, study finds

Exposure to lead by ancient humans could have given modern humans a survival advantage over other species – more specifically, their ability to better resist lead's harmful effects, according to a new study. An international research team analyzed the lead content of 51 fossilized hominid teeth, the most ancient samples of which were around 1.8 million years old, and found that signs of lead exposure were present in 73% of the samples, which included Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and other extinct Homo species, according to the study. Based on their findings, researchers postulate that Homo sapiens reacted better to lead exposure evolutionarily than Neanderthals , a species that were close relatives to Homo sapiens and that went extinct around 40,000 years ago. Lead exposure has been linked t