Thousands of years ago, apparently, a prehistoric human (possibly a Neanderthal) took a misstep and ended up in a hot spring. Then, the hot spring, a particular kind that produces limestone formations called travertine (such as Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park or Pamukkale in Turkey) covered the body of the unfortunate human with crystallizing stone. The soft parts of this human decayed, but the harder skeletal parts didn't -- they are similar in composition to the limestone.
Many many years later, the travertine was excavated and cut to make decorative tiles for the floor of a home. And then a dentist spotted the jawbone of the unfortunate human in one of the tiles.
Dentist Discovers Human-Like Jawbone and Teeth in a Floor Tile at His Parents’ Home"He [the dentist] found the jawbone in a tile made of travertine, a type of limestone that typically forms near hot springs. This specific tile came from a quarry in the Denizli Basin of western Turkey. The travertine excavated there formed between 0.7 million and 1.8 million years ago, which suggests the mandible did not come from a person who died recently."
Below, the dentist (or somebody) gives the teeth a brushing.
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