Anthropology

A foot fossil suggests a second early human relative lived alongside Lucy

Bone fragments from Ethiopia show two human ancestors may have shared the same landscape

A photo of bones from a skeletal foot of a hominid

A partial foot skeleton from 3.4 million years ago has been assigned to the early human relative Australopithecus deyiremeda, a species that was first named in 2015 and challenges the traditional view of human evolution during this time.

Yohannes Haile-Selassie

By Jay Bennett

In 2009, Yohannes Haile-Selassie and his team were combing the desert landscape of Burtele, a paleontological site in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, when Stephanie Melillo found something remarkable: an ancient, humanlike foot bone.