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There are few things more irritating in everyday life than getting something stuck between your teeth. Thankfully, we can reach for a toothpick – and it seems our ancient ancestors did the same. In fact, a fragment of a 1.2-million-year-old toothpick is perhaps the earliest direct evidence we have of hominins using plants as tools.
Our ancient ancestors probably made frequent use of implements made from plants. But finding evidence of this is extremely tough because botanical materials are so quick to rot away. This means the archaeological record of human tool use is deeply skewed towards the much hardier stone.…
