Berger is not claiming that he has found the missing link — a direct ancestor of modern humans who made a great evolutionary leap from australopith to Homo. (slate.com)
They tend to see ergaster as a direct ancestor of modern humans with erectus being an evolutionary dead - end. (archaeologyinfo.com)
Homo erectus — an early ancestor of modern humans — resembled a squat body builder more than a svelte distance runner, a newly unearthed fossil pelvis suggests. (newscientist.com)