This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Homo ergaster is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
| Homo ergaster Fossil range: Pleistocene |
||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Skull KNM-ER 3733 discovered by Bernard Ngeneo in 1975 (Kenya)
|
||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||||
| †Homo ergaster Groves & Mazak, 1975 |
Homo ergaster ("working man") is an extinct hominin species (or subspecies, according to some authorities) which lived throughout eastern and southern Africa between 1.9 to 1.4 million years ago with the advent of the lower Pleistocene and the cooling of the global climate.
H. ergaster is sometimes categorized as a subspecies of Homo erectus. H. ergaster may be distinguished from H. erectus by its thinner skull bones and lack of an obvious sulcus. Derived features include reduced sexual dimorphism; a smaller, more orthognathic (straight jawed) face; a smaller dental arcade; and a larger (700 and 850 cm³) cranial capacity. It is estimated that H. ergaster stood at 1.9 m (6ft3) tall. Remains have been found in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa.
The most complete Homo ergaster skeleton known was discovered at Lake Turkana, Kenya, in 1984. Paleanthropologists Richard Leakey, Kamoya Kimeu and Tim White dubbed the 1.6 million year old specimen as KNM-WT 15000 (nicknamed "Turkana Boy").
The type specimen of H. ergaster is KNM ER 9921; the species was named by Groves and Mazak in 1975.
The species name originates from the Greek ergaster meaning "Workman". This name was chosen due to the discovery of various tools such as hand-axes and cleavers near the skeletal remains of H. ergaster. This is one of the reasons that it is sometimes set apart distinctly from other human ancestors. Its use of advanced (rather than simple) tools was unique to this species; H. ergaster tool use belongs to the Acheulean industry. H. ergaster first began using these tools 1.6 million years ago. Charred animal bones in fossil deposits and traces of camps suggest that the species made creative use of fire. Another notable characteristic of H. ergaster is that it was the first hominid to have the same body proportions (longer legs and shorter arms) as modern H. sapiens.2
Contents |
Notable fossils
- KNM ER 3733
- Turkana boy - also classified as Homo erectus
- KNM ER 992
See also
- List of fossil sites (with link directory)
- List of hominina (hominid) fossils (with images)
- Telanthropus capensis
References
- Tattersall, Ian and Schwartz, Jeffrey. "Extinct Humans". Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado and Cumnor Hill, Oxford, 2000. ISBN 0-8133-3482-9 (hc)
External links
Footnote
|
||||||||||||
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 8 November 2008, at 16:41.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Homo ergaster".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.