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There is archeological evidence that Neanderthals manufactured stone tools requiring cognitive skill and dexterity,[31] made fire on demand,[32] sailed from mainland Europe to Crete and the Ionian Islands,[33] produced glue from the bark of the birch tree,[34] and appear to have treated maladies with medicinal plants that had anesthetic and antibiotic properties: traces of DNA from poplar trees, which contain salicylic acid—the naturally occurring inspiration for the synthetic aspirin, and Penicillium mold, the source of penicillin—have been found in the calcified plaque of Neanderthals.[
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