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Hominins suffered lead poisoning starting at least 2 million years ago

Hominins suffered lead poisoning starting at least 2 million years ago
science10/17/2025

A recent study found lead in teeth from 2 million-year-old hominin fossils.

Our hominid ancestors faced a Pleistocene world full of dangers—and apparently one of those dangers was lead poisoning. Lead exposure sounds like a modern problem, at least if you define “modern” the way a paleoanthropologist might: a time that start... [8790 chars]