Homo ergaster - What's in a name?
By Eugene M. McCarthy, Ph.D.
As a category, Homo ergaster (which means "working man" -- referring to the use of tools) is problematic, in particular as different individual paleoanthropologists accepting it as valid do not agree on which fossils should be assigned to it. The younger specimens assigned to this category are usually found associated with Acheulean tools. Researchers who assert the validity of Homo ergaster usually suggest it was a form more similar to modern humans than was Homo erectus. However, many experts are now inclined to believe fossils attributed to ergaster really belong either to Homo habilis or Homo erectus, primarily the latter (ergaster fossils date to a period when habilis and erectus overlapped in time -- see human evolution timeline).
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