By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Scientists have solved the mystery of 3.4 million-year-old fossils called the “Burtele Foot” discovered in Ethiopia in 2009, finding they belonged to an enigmatic human ancestor that lived alongside another closely related species during a poorly understood time in human evolution.

Based on the recent discovery nearby of 25 teeth and the jawbone of a 4-1/2 year-old child, scientists have determined that the eight foot bones represent the species Australopithecus deyiremeda, which combined ape-like and human-like traits and was first identified just a decade ago.

The Burtele Foot, so named because the bones were found at a site called Burtele in northeastern Ethiopia’s Afar region, showed that this species was bipedal but still had an opposable big to

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