LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A pair of lungs found on a Los Angeles-area sidewalk over the weekend came from an animal and were not human as initially feared, authorities said on Tuesday.

The lungs were discovered by a woman walking in an area just outside the city limits on Sunday night, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokeswoman said.

The woman alerted police, who turned the organs over to the Los Angeles County Coroner for analysis.

"We have examined the lungs and determined that they are not human and not of forensic value," coroner's investigator Lieutenant Fred Corral told Reuters.

Corral said investigators did not figure out what kind of animal the lungs came from or how they came to be deposited on the sidewalk.

In January, a decapitated human head, as well as severed hands and feet, were found in the foothills below the famed Hollywood sign overlooking Los Angeles.

Homicide detectives later identified the remains as belonging to a former Mexicana airlines employee, 66-year-old Hervey Coronado Medellin. His murder remains unsolved.

(Reporting and writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Steve Gorman and Anthony Boadle)