Overview

• A Science Advances study reports geochemical signals of intermittent childhood lead uptake in fossil teeth spanning roughly 100,000 to nearly 2 million years.
• Researchers analyzed 51 teeth from hominids and great apes across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, identifying distinct growth-band "lead lines."
• Brain organoid experiments found that organoids with archaic NOVA1 variants showed greater lead-induced disruption, including to FOXP2-linked neurons, than those with the modern human NOVA1.
• The authors propose that reduced sensitivity to lead in the modern NOVA1 variant could have conferred an advantage to Homo sapiens over Neanderthals, though this remains a hypothesis.
• The team attributes ancient exposure to natural sources such as volcanism and contaminated water or soil, and coverage notes lead remains a major health threat today with an estimated 1.5 million deaths in 2021.