59,000-year-old Neanderthal tooth shows earliest evidence of dentistry

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — An unusual tooth found in a cave offers a rare glimpse into a surprising procedure prehistoric humans might have performed to fix a cavity 59,000 years ago. Researchers uncovered the lower molar of an adult Neanderthal in Chagryskaya Cave in what’s now Russia, located in southwestern Siberia’s Altai Mountains,