The family tree gets a little bushier

Researchers working in the Afar region of Africa have found the foot bones of a new species of bipedal hominid, roughly contemporary with Australopithecus afarensis. The site is about 50 kilometers from where the famous "Lucy" Au. afarensis skeleton was found. So that's two early bipedal hominids. This one could push off, like Lucy, or us, or any Homo species, and unlike other apes, but it still had a somewhat-opposable big toe.

Unfortunately, all we have (so far, at least) is eight bones from the right foot, so we can tell it isn't Au. afarensis or Ardipithecus ramidus—we know what their feet looked like—but the researchers aren't classifying these bones even by genus, let alone naming a new species, with no teeth or skull bones.

Meanwhile (I was reading Science this afternoon) they continue to do genetic sequencing on the Denisovan fossil remnants. Three specimens from a single site, and a fair amount of variation in the mitochondrial DNA. And those specimens aren't being named more formally than "Denisovan," either, at least not yet—yes, they have a tooth, but that's not a lot to work with. The other thing (this is my speculation about reasons) is that if you postpone formal naming, you can skip the "is this a species or a subspecies?" question. (Yes, rysmiel, I know that's an arbitrary distinction, but people do draw it, sometimes loudly.)