This article was originally submitted by coldrum.
A man whose 4,500-year-old bones were found in Mexico may have worn ceremonial dentures made from jaguar or wolf fangs, an archaeologist claims.
The find is said to represent one of the earliest examples of dentistry in the Americas.
The man's remains were found in volcanic ash beneath a cliff painted with ancient rock art in a remote mountain region of western Mexico.
Many pre-Hispanic Mexican cultures revered wild animals like jaguars. The Maya, for example, believed the big cat ruled the underworld.
James Chatters, an archaeologist and palaeontologist with Amec Earth and Environmental and a member of the research team, said the man's upper and front teeth had been removed - possibly to insert a ceremonial denture made from the palate of a wolf or a jaguar.
"Such a denture might be something like the mouthparts of a predatory animal or some fierce animal of some sort," he said.
BBC article
National Geographic story
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