The upper jaw of Australopithecus deyiremeda (BRT-VP-3/1) found in Ethiopia on March 4, 2011, and identified as a possible new 'human' ancestor species. Photo: Reuters/Cleveland Museum of Natural History/Yohannes Haile-Selassie
Jaw and teeth fossils found on the silty clay surface of Ethiopia's Afar region represent a previously unknown member of humankind's family tree that lived 3.3 to 3.5 million years ago alongside the famous human ancestor "Lucy," scientists say.
The fossils shed new light on a key period in the human lineage's evolution before the emergence of our genus Homo and provide the first evidence that two early human ancestor species lived at the same time and place prior to 3 million years ago, they say when announcing the discovery on May 27.
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