Oct 16, 2025 06:25 PM
Did lead limit brain and language development in Neanderthals and other extinct hominids?
https://today.ucsd.edu/story/did-lead-li...t-hominids
INTRO: What set the modern human brain apart from our now extinct relatives like Neanderthals? A new study by University of California San Diego School of Medicine and an international team of researchers reveals that ancient hominids — including early humans and great apes — were exposed to lead earlier than previously thought, up to two million years before modern humans began mining the metal.
This exposure may have shaped the evolution of hominid brains, limiting language and social development in all but modern humans due to a protective genetic variant that only we carry. The study was published in Science Advances on October 15, 2025.
The researchers analyzed fossilized teeth from 51 hominids across Africa, Asia and Europe, including modern and archaic humans such as Neanderthals, ancient human ancestors like Australopithecus africanus, and extinct great apes such as Gigantopithecus blacki.
They detected lead in 73% of the specimens, including 71% of modern and archaic humans. Notably, G. blacki fossils dating back 1.8 million years showed the most frequent acute lead exposure.
It’s long been assumed that humans have been exposed to harmful amounts of lead since antiquity — when the Romans used lead pipes to transport water — and that lead contamination increased significantly during the Industrial Revolution, only to be curtailed during the late twentieth century.
“We stopped using lead in our daily lives when we realized how toxic it is, but nobody had ever studied lead in prehistory,” said corresponding author Alysson Muotri... (MORE - details)
https://today.ucsd.edu/story/did-lead-li...t-hominids
INTRO: What set the modern human brain apart from our now extinct relatives like Neanderthals? A new study by University of California San Diego School of Medicine and an international team of researchers reveals that ancient hominids — including early humans and great apes — were exposed to lead earlier than previously thought, up to two million years before modern humans began mining the metal.
This exposure may have shaped the evolution of hominid brains, limiting language and social development in all but modern humans due to a protective genetic variant that only we carry. The study was published in Science Advances on October 15, 2025.
The researchers analyzed fossilized teeth from 51 hominids across Africa, Asia and Europe, including modern and archaic humans such as Neanderthals, ancient human ancestors like Australopithecus africanus, and extinct great apes such as Gigantopithecus blacki.
They detected lead in 73% of the specimens, including 71% of modern and archaic humans. Notably, G. blacki fossils dating back 1.8 million years showed the most frequent acute lead exposure.
It’s long been assumed that humans have been exposed to harmful amounts of lead since antiquity — when the Romans used lead pipes to transport water — and that lead contamination increased significantly during the Industrial Revolution, only to be curtailed during the late twentieth century.
“We stopped using lead in our daily lives when we realized how toxic it is, but nobody had ever studied lead in prehistory,” said corresponding author Alysson Muotri... (MORE - details)