JAKARTA – Because there are no fossils dinosaur in Indonesia? Indeed, it is one of the countries rich in abundant flora and fauna.
Lots of unique plants and animals that live there. However, not a single dinosaur fossil has been found so far. Then why?
According to the National World News, on Monday (10/10/2022), the dinosaurs lived in the Mesozoic era which had three phases, namely Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.
The Triassic occurred about 252 million years – 201 million years ago, the Jurassic about 210 – 145 million years ago and the Cretaceous 145 – 66 million years ago.
During these three phases, the Indonesian mainland was actually still under the sea and only formed about 30 million years ago. Of all the regions of Indonesia, only the island of Borneo was part of Eurasia in the Mesozoic era.
Unfortunately, however, dinosaur fossils on the island of Borneo are still impossible to find due to the geological location of the island, which is mainly a peat bog and requires a large amount of money to conduct research.
This is confirmed by the hypothesis that dinosaurs avoided the equator or the equator in the Mesozoic era. Because the equatorial region is very hot and dry.
Furthermore, the equatorial region contains a lot of carbon dioxide which can cause natural fires.
Although no dinosaur fossils have been found in Indonesia to date, many ancient marine reptiles can be found, such as Mixosaurus timorensis, Ichttyosaurus ceramensis, and Globidens timorensis.
According to John Long, a paleontology professor at Flinders University, there are currently around 900 valid dinosaur species.
Dinosaurs are believed to have become extinct after a meteor shower 65 million years ago when a 15-kilometer-diameter asteroid hit Earth. The asteroid attack had a shock power equivalent to 10 billion Hiroshima bombs.
The force of this tremor was a precursor to the formation of the Chicxulub crater under the Mexican peninsula of Yucatán.
