Neanderthals were performing dental surgery nearly 60,000 years ago and it surprisingly worked
The roughly 59,000-year-old molar tooth was found in Chagyrskaya Cave. Image credit: Zubova et al., 2026, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 In the past, it was the case that Neanderthal was used to describe an abbreviation for someone who was unsteady or dumb. The image we had of them was that of hulking figures whizzing across…