By Rebecca MorelleScience Correspondent, BBC News
28 May 2015
A new species of ancient human has been unearthed in the Afar region of Ethiopia, scientists report.
Researchers discovered jaw bones and teeth, which date to between 3.3m and 3.5m years old.
It means this new hominin was alive at the same time as several other early human species, suggesting our family tree is more complicated than was thought.
The study is published in the journal Nature.
The new species has been called Australopithecus deyiremeda, which means "close relative" in the language spoken by the Afar people.The bones were found in the Afar region of EthiopiaThe remains belong to four individuals and date to between 3.3m and 3.5m years old
The ancient remains are thought to belong to four individuals, who would have had both ape and human-like features..
Living with Lucy
Lead researcher Dr Yohannes Haile-Selassie, curator of physical anthropology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in the US, told BBC News: "We had to look at the detailed anatomy and morphology of the teeth and the upper and lower jaws, and we found major differences.
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