The Mystery of the “Bertel Foot” Unraveled

Recently, scientists have unraveled the mystery surrounding ancient human remains discovered in Ethiopia. It’s worth noting that 3.4 million-year-old fossils were discovered in Ethiopia in 2009. They were initially called the “Bertel Foot.”

They contained 25 teeth and the jawbone of a 4-1/2-year-old child. Scientists have now determined that the eight foot bones belong to the Australopithecus deyiremeda species, a species that combined ape-like and human-like features and was first identified just a decade ago.

Bertel Foot, so named because the bones were found in a site called Bertel in the Afar region of northeastern Ethiopia, was bipedal, but its big toe was inverted, a feature useful for climbing trees. This suggests that when it walked upright, it walked differently from humans today.

Fossil studies show that two closely related species, or hominins, lived at the same time and place. The other species was Australopithecus afarensis. A. afarensis is the species that includes the famous fossil Lucy, discovered in the Afar region in 1974.