At several ancient Neanderthal sites across Europe, archaeologists kept noticing something odd: nearly all of the rhinoceros remains were teeth, not bones. At the site of Payre in France, isolated rhino teeth made up about 91% of rhino fossils found in one particular layer. Bones were broken, scattered, used. The teeth were different. They were just there, and no one could fully explain why.
A team led by Alicia Sanz-Royo at the University of Aberdeen and Juan Marín of UNED in Madrid decided to look more closely. When they examined fossilized rhino teeth from several archaeological and paleontological collections, they found linear grooves, pits, and microfractures on the enamel surfaces that did not match damage from chewing or natural decay. The marks looked like something else entirely.
To find out what, they ran experiments using teeth from modern rhinoceroses that had died of natural causes in zoos. The researchers used those teeth to perform tasks Neanderthals would have regularly carried out: retouching the edges of flint and quartz tools, shaping stone scrapers, and using the teeth as small anvils while cutting organic materials. The results, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, were striking.
The marks the experiments produced on modern teeth matched the marks on the fossils. The same linear grooves, the same pits, the same microfractures appeared in both sets of material. Rhino tooth enamel, it turned out, was durable enough to absorb repeated impacts during stone-working without cracking or wearing down quickly.
"This work presents, for the first time, archaeological and taphonomic experiments on present-day rhinoceros teeth and proposes that human activities, rather than natural compaction and abrasion processes, can cause similar traces to those observed in the archaeological record," the study authors explained.
The finding adds to a growing body of evidence that Neanderthals were more resourceful and deliberate in their use of materials than was once assumed. Because rhino teeth are exceptionally dense, the researchers argue that Neanderthals likely selected them intentionally and carried them from one location to another for repeated use, treating them as a reliable component of a broader toolkit rather than discarding them after a single use.
The team compared modern and fossilized teeth from multiple sites, including El Castillo in Spain and Pech-de-l'Azé in France, strengthening the case that rhino tooth tool use was not isolated to one location but may have been a widespread Neanderthal practice.
"Our results contribute to the knowledge of Neanderthal behavior, technical choices, and capabilities, providing insights into the human exploitation of animal resources, as well as expanding the diversity of raw materials collected and used by Neanderthals," the authors wrote.
The research does not settle every question about why teeth were so consistently preserved at these sites, but it offers the most concrete explanation yet: Neanderthals were keeping them because they worked.
