Homo ergaster

Homo Ergaster

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Homo ergaster

Homo ergaster is an extinct hominin species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
(or subspecies, according to some authorities) which lived throughout eastern and southern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
between 1.9 to 1.4 million years ago with the advent of the lower Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
and the cooling of the global climate. H. ergaster is sometimes categorized as a subspecies

Subspecies

In biology, subspecies is the taxonomic rank immediately subordinate to a species. A subspecies is a taxonomic group which is less distinct than the Common descent or species from which it originates....
of Homo erectus
Homo Erectus

Homo Erectus is a 2007 comedy film about cavemen that was written and directed by Adam Rifkin, and starring Giuseppe Andrews, Gary Busey, David Carradine, Ron Jeremy, Ali Larter, Hayes MacArthur, Adam Rifkin, and Talia Shire....
. H. ergaster may be distinguished from H. erectus by its thinner skull bones and lack of an obvious sulcus

Sulcus (neuroanatomy)

In neuroanatomy, a sulcus is a depression or fissure in the surface of the brain.It surrounds the gyrus, creating the characteristic appearance of the brain in humans and other large mammals....
.

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Encyclopedia

Homo ergaster is an extinct hominin species

Species

Africa

Pleistocene

Subspecies

Sulcus (neuroanatomy)

Sexual dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism is the systematic difference in form between individuals of different sex in the same species. Examples include color , size, and the presence or absence of parts of the body used in courtship displays or fights, such as ornamental feathers, horns, antlers or tusks....
; a smaller, more orthognathic (straight jawed) face; a smaller dental arcade; and a larger (700 and 850 cm³

Cubic centimetre

A cubic centimetre or cubic centimeter is a commonly used unit of volume extending the derived International System of Units-unit cubic metre and corresponds to the volume of a cube measuring 1?1?1 cm....
) cranial capacity

Cranial capacity

Cranial capacity is a measure of the volume of the interior of the cranium of those vertebrates who have both a cranium and a brain. The most commonly used unit of measure is the cubic centimetre or cubic centimetre....
. It is estimated that H. ergaster stood at tall. Remains have been found in Tanzania

Tanzania

Tanzania , officially the United Republic of Tanzania , is a country in East Africa that is bordered by Kenya and Uganda on the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique on the south....
, Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
, Kenya

Kenya

The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the northeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border....
, and South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
. The most complete Homo ergaster skeleton known was discovered at Lake Turkana, Kenya, in 1984. Paleanthropologists Richard Leakey

Richard Leakey

Richard Erskine Frere Leakey , is a Kenyan politician, paleoanthropologist and conservationist. He is second of the three sons of the archaeologists Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey, and is the younger brother of Colin Leakey....
, Kamoya Kimeu

Kamoya Kimeu

Kamoya Kimeu, is one of the world's most successful fossil collectors who, together with Paleontology Meave Leakey and Richard Leakey, is responsible for some of the most significant archaeological discoveries....
and Tim White

Tim White (anthropologist)

Tim White is an American Paleoanthropologist and Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is most famous for his work on Lucy as Australopithecus afarensis with discoverer Donald Johanson....
dubbed the 1.6 million year old specimen as KNM-WT 15000 (nicknamed "Turkana Boy

Turkana Boy

Turkana Boy or Nariokotome Boy is the designation given to fossil KNM-WT 15000, a nearly complete skeleton of an 11- or 12-year-old hominid boy who died 1.5 million years ago in the early Pleistocene....
").

The type specimen of H. ergaster is KNM ER 992

KNM ER 992

KNM ER 992 is a fossilized lower jaw from the species Homo ergaster. It was discovered in Koobi Fora, Kenya by in 1971.It is estimated to be 1.5 million years old....
; the species was named by Colin Groves

Colin Groves

Colin Groves is Professor of Biological Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.Born in England, he completed a BSc in 1963, and a PhD in 1966....
and Vratislav Mazák

Vratislav Mazák

Vratislav Maz?k was a Czech republic biologist. He specialised in paleoanthropology, mammalogy and taxonomy, and he was also a painter, often illustrating his books about animals and men....
in 1975.

The species name originates from the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
ergaster meaning "Workman". This name was chosen due to the discovery of various tools such as hand-axes and cleaver

Cleaver

The word cleaver has a number of uses:*Cleaver is a large form of knife.*Ar?te, in descriptive geology, is a ridge of rock that separates a unified flow of glacial ice from its uphill side into two glaciers flanking, and flowing parallel to, the ridge....
s 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

Acheulean

Acheulean is the name given to an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture associated with prehistoric hominins during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia and Europe....
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

Fire

Fire is the oxidation of a combustion material releasing heat, light, and various Chemical reaction products such as carbon dioxide and water....
. 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.

Notable fossils

KNM ER 3733
KNM ER 3733

Dr. Benard Wood of George Washington University considers KNM ER 3733 as a fossilized skull of the species Homo ergaster, although some paleoanthropologists consider it to be Homo erectus....
Turkana boy
Turkana Boy

Turkana Boy or Nariokotome Boy is the designation given to fossil KNM-WT 15000, a nearly complete skeleton of an 11- or 12-year-old hominid boy who died 1.5 million years ago in the early Pleistocene....
- also classified as Homo erectus
KNM ER 992
KNM ER 992

KNM ER 992 is a fossilized lower jaw from the species Homo ergaster. It was discovered in Koobi Fora, Kenya by in 1971.It is estimated to be 1.5 million years old....

Homo ergaster

Notable fossils

See also

Footnotes

External links