ABOVE: A Mongolian herder removes this horse’s first premolars, or wolf teeth, using a screwdriver.
DIMITRI STASZEWSKI, TAYLOR ET AL. 2018, PNAS
Mongolian horse herders extract certain premolars, called wolf teeth, from the mouths of horses before the animals turn two years old, usually with the aid of a screwdriver. This form of equine dentistry makes wearing metal mouthpieces, or bits, a tad more comfortable for creatures whose long service to humans galvanized the spread of civilizations throughout history, aiding in trade, warfare, transport, and communication.
William Taylor, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, was studying horse bones at the National Museum of Mongolia and carrying out his own excavations in the East Asian country when local researchers told him about this form of oral health care that modern-day Mongolian herders administer to their horses. Taylor wondered “how deep the ...
