Question about evolution

[Regina]

Please excuse me if I don't use the correct scientific language... I have a question about how the animal kingdom is spread out over the world. For example, you have bears in almost all the continents, felines, primates, fish in the lakes, or even snakes are to be found all over the world. But how come early hominids are seemingly only found around the northern africa/europe area? I apologize if any of this is incorrect. I just was thinking about it and was surprised that hominids haven't branched out in a more diverse way around the earth. It seems like other animals diversified and spread out but humans are concentrated in a smaller area. Hope the question makes sense, thanks!

PS completely unrelated... how do I use the quote function so that when I reply to someone I don't have to have their entire reply quoted, thanks

It's to do with timing more than likely

I'd assume the cat species and other mammals may have evolved and spread earlier, perhaps at a time when sea levels were lower so they could reach other continents easier. Cats especially also have greater adaptability to a wide variety of environments that early hominids might not have had, which helped them to spread easier.

The Americas are very isolated, even from Siberia (the nearest land by way of the Bering straight) so no species of large ape ever reached it before the first humans (the ancestors of Native Americans) did. They could only reach Alaska and then move down into the Americas during the last ice age, when the Bering strait closed up. Australia too is easily the most isolated continent, which is why there has always been a lack of large indigenous predators there. Dinosaurs never reached Australia, thus Australia has "unique" mammals that died everywhere else, like kangaroos.

This question isn't so much to do with evolution, it's more about geography. Fish can also get around the world easier since oceans are more connected to eachother than continents are.