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AFRICA

AFRICA -is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km (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.[2] With 1.0 billion people (as of 2009, seetable) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.72% of the world's human population.

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. habilisand H. ergaster with the earliest Homo sapiens (modern human) found in Ethiopia being dated to circa 200,000 years ago.[3] Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones.[4] The African expected economic growth rate is at about 5.0% for 2010 and 5.5% in 2011.[5]

The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent has 54 sovereign states, includingMadagascar and various island groups. Africa, particularly central Eastern Africa, is widely regarded within the scientific community to be the origin of humans and the Hominidaeclade (great apes),

ETYMOLOGY
Afri was the name of several Semitic peoples who dwelt in North Africa near Carthage (in modern Tunisia). Their name is usually connected with Phoenician afar, "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis has asserted that it stems from a Berber word ifri or Ifran meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers. Africa or Ifri or Afer is the name of Banu Ifran from Algeria andTripolitania (Berber Tribe of Yafran). Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of Africa Province, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya. The Latin suffix "ica" can sometimes be used to denote a land (e.g., in Celtica from Celtes, as used by Julius Caesar). The later Muslim kingdom of Ifriqiya, modern-day Tunisia, also preserved a form of the name.

but are more common in the south than north. The boundary separating the Triassic and Jurassic marks the advent of an extinction event with global impact, although African strata from this time period have not been thoroughly studied. .

The African theropod Spinosauruswas the largest known carnivorous dinosaur.

HISTORY

The African prosauropodMassospondylus.

-Paleohistory
.At

the beginning of the Mesozoic Era, Africa was joined with

Earth's other continents in Pangaea. Africa shared the supercontinent's relatively uniform fauna, which was dominated by theropods, prosauropods and primitive ornithischians by the close of the Triassic period.[11] Late Triassic fossils are found through-out Africa,