Characteristics of Homo ergaster
Written by Holly Reeser reeser@flmnh.ufl.edu

The African "erectus" hypodigm does not exhibit the suite of characters possessed by the Asian material. This obseravtion as prompted some researchers to recognize it as a new species, Homo ergaster, which forms a sister group with Homo erectus (Wood, 1994)

Vault conoturs for H. ergaster include rounded, taller, less recessed features . There are no superstructures present including keeling or classic occipital torus.

The supraorbital torus is linear and the anterior edge of the brain is equally anterior at both the midline and lateral edges. The tempromandibular joint os oval resulting from the shorter anterior/posterior dimensions as compared to medial/lateral.

Cladistic analysis done by Chamberlain and Wood (1987) used 90 cranial, mandibular, and dental measurments. The most parsimonious cladogram associates Homo ergaster with Homo erectus as a sister group. this cladistic evidence also suggests that H. ergaster is more closely related to archaic and modern Homo sapien than Homo erectus form Asian.

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