Africa
hideAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people (as of 2009, see table) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the World's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Not counting the disputed territory of Western Sahara, there are 53 countries, including Madagascar and various island groups, associated with the continent.
Africa, particularly central eastern Africa, is widely regarded within the scientific community to be the origin of humans and the Hominidae tree (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their ancestors, as well as later ones that have been dated to around seven million years ago – including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster – with the earliest Homo sapiens (human) found in Ethiopia being dated to ca. 200,000 years ago.
Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones.
For more information about Africa, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with africa
French find puts humans in Europe 200,000 years earlier
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Dec 15, 2009 |
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Experts on prehistoric man are rethinking their dates after a find in a southern French valley suggested our ancestors may have reached Europe 1.57 million years ago: 200,000 years earlier than we thought.
Influenza in Africa should not be ignored
Dec 15, 2009 |
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Influenza is circulating in Africa, but virtually no information or attention is evident, says a new essay in this week's PLoS Medicine. Maria Yazdanbakhsh and Peter Kremsner argue that the lack of adequate surveillance means ...
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Scientists use cell phone records to predict spread of malaria
Dec 16, 2009 |
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University of Florida researchers at work on a malaria elimination study in Africa have become the first to predict the spread of the disease using cell phone records.
World's rarest gorilla ready for its close-up (w/ Video)
Dec 16, 2009 |
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The world's rarest -- and most camera shy -- great ape has finally been captured on professional video on a forested mountain in Cameroon, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and Germany's NDR Naturfilm.
Text of Jewish exorcism discovered
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Dec 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A rare - and possibly unique - text describing a Jewish exorcism has been discovered by a scholar of medieval Jewish studies.
Global barcode project to scan plants in the wild
Dec 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A cheap and fast method of identifying the world's most important plants in the wild could soon be possible, thanks to a global project involving the University of Adelaide.
Ecosystem, vegetation affect intensity of urban heat island effect
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2009 |
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NASA researchers studying urban landscapes have found that the intensity of the "heat island" created by a city depends on the ecosystem it replaced and on the regional climate. Urban areas developed in arid and semi-arid ...
Unique 'Climate One Stop' Web Site Unveiled in Copenhagen
Dec 15, 2009 |
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There's a storm brewing -- a storm of information, that is, in climate and environmental research. People are wading through the turbulence, trying to make sense of it all.
New results from a terra-ific decade in orbit
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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December 18, 2009, marks the tenth year since the launch of Terra, one of NASA's "flagship" Earth observing satellites. But the decade is more than just a mechanical milestone. With each additional day and ...
Further spread of Rhodesian sleeping sickness in Uganda likely due to livestock movements
Dec 15, 2009 |
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The northwards spread of human Rhodesian sleeping sickness in Uganda is likely due to the movement of infected livestock, according to new findings from an interdisciplinary research group including members from the Centre ...
Obesity epidemic taking root in Africa
Dec 15, 2009 |
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The urban poor in sub-Saharan Africa are the latest victims of the obesity epidemic. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Public Health claim that overweight and obesity are on the increase among this group. ...
Drinks industry supplanting government role in alcohol policies in Sub-Saharan Africa
Dec 15, 2009 |
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A recent comparison of proposed national alcohol policies in Lesotho, Malawi, Uganda, and Botswana shows that the drinks industry has assumed a significant and detrimental role in designing national alcohol policies in Sub-Saharan ...
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