Africa, particularly central eastern Africa, is widely regarded within the scientific community to be the origin of humans and the Hominidae tree 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,habilis and ergaster with the earliest Homo sapiens  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.