HOMO ERGASTER
The Homo ergaster species lived in Africa 1.8
million years ago and was alive until 600,000 years ago, likely becoming the
ancestor of Homo erectus in Asia, Homo neanderthalensis in Europe, and Homo
sapiens in Africa (1995CachelS_HarrisJ; 2005KleinR). Homo ergaster is
occasionally equated with Homo erectus in publications (2013TattersallI).
The most complete Homo ergaster skeleton
belongs to an adolescent named "Turkana Boy" (KNM-WT 15000). The
young man was between 8 and 12 years old (2010GravesRR_CunninghamDL;
2019BergmanJ). The age of this individual's remains is believed to be 1.6
million years (2007TattersallI).
_Fundort_Nariokotome,_Kenia,_Rekonstruktion_im_Neanderthal_Museum.jpg) |
| Turkana Boy (reconstruction) Author: Mettmann Neanderthal Museum; source: wikimedia.org collection (license CC BY-SA 4.0, no changes). |
The pelvis of specimen KNM-WT 15000 is well
preserved. It shows ossified acetabulums. In turn, they have spacious
acetabular fossae and wide acetabular notches. Based on these elements, it is
possible to conclude that Homo ergaster had a ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF).
 |
| Left acetabulum of the pelvis of the «Turkana Boy» (c. 12 years old); epoxy resin cast, material from the educational collection of the Archaeology Research Laboratories, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (model Joy Mersman). [sketchfab.com] |
We have studied the image of the proximal
section of the right femur of the individual KNM-WT 15000 (researchgate.net). On the medial surface, almost in the center, the fossa of the femoral head is
visualized (2018DeSilvaJM_BergerLR:Fig.2). We can distinguish a similar
structure in the image of the upper third of the left femur of the same
skeleton (2018CromptonRH_ClarkeR:Fig.7). The presence of the fossa of the
femoral head is additional strong evidence in favor of the presence of LCF in
the Homo ergaster species.
References
Cachel S, Harris J. Ranging patterns, land-use and subsistence in Homo erectus from the perspective of evolutionary ecology. In: Bower JRF, Sartono S (Eds). Human evolution in its ecological context (Proceedings of the Pithecanthropus Centennial 1893–1993 Congress). Leiden: Pithecanthropus Centennial Foundation, Leiden University, 1995:51-66.
Klein R. Hominin dispersals in the Old World. In: Scarre C (Ed). The Human Past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies. Thames & Hudson, 2005:84-123. [researchgate.net]
Tattersall I. Homo ergaster and its contemporaries. Handbook of paleoanthropology. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2013:1633-53. [academia.edu]
Graves RR, Lupo AC, McCarthy RC, Wescott DJ, Cunningham DL. Just how strapping was KNM-WT 15000?. Journal of Human Evolution. 2010;59(5)542-54. [sciencedirect.com]
Bergman J. Turkana Boy Hurts Evolutionary Narratives, Oct 8, 2019. [crev.info]
Tattersall I. Homo ergaster and its contemporaries. Handbook of paleoanthropology. 2007;3:1633-53. [academia.edu]
DeSilva JM, Churchill SE, Zipfel B, Walker CS, Sylvester AD, McNutt EJ, ... Berger LR. Australopithecus sediba---The Anatomy of the Lower Limb Skeleton of Australopithecus sediba. PaleoAnthropology. 2018:357-405. [researchgate.net]
Crompton RH, McClymont J, Thorpe S, Sellers W, Heaton J, Pickering TR, ... Clarke R. Functional anatomy, biomechanical performance capabilities and potential niche of StW 573: an Australopithecus skeleton (circa 3.67 Ma) from Sterkfontein Member 2, and its significance for the last common ancestor of the African apes and for hominin origins. BIoRxiv. 2018;481556. [biorxiv.org]
Keywords
ligamentum capitis femoris, ligamentum teres, ligament of head of femur, doctrine, homo ergaster
The original text in Russian is available at the link: Homo ergaster
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