Questions such as the size of dinosaurs that we know lived in ancient times, why they disappeared, and how long they lived have always aroused curiosity.
In this article, we will erase a completely different question mark from our minds. Did dinosaurs, which we learn more and more with each passing day, ever lived in our country? Here, let’s examine it.
Let’s take a look at the Palinspastic map based on geology or earth science.
Palinspastic map is actually the map of the Earth before tectonism took place in ancient times, which we call paleogeography. We know that the continents we see on the world map did not exist in this state, in the period when dinosaurs began to exist, that is, about 245 million years ago, in the time period called the Triassic Period.
We remember from geography lessons that continents such as Asia, Europe and Africa were united and named as “Pangea”, and that there was only one ocean called “Panthalassa” around Pangea, which was not divided into parts such as the Indian, the Great and the Pacific.
What was Earth like when the dinosaurs went extinct?
Dinosaurs, which emerged on average 245 million years ago, began to disappear 66 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous Period. Those ages when the dinosaurs, which had an adventure of approximately 179 million years, began to go extinct are considered as the times when the world map began to take its present form.
In the Late Cretaceous Period we are talking about, the majority of Anatolia, which consists of a series of islands, was under water. Yes, terrestrial areas had begun to form in our country in the last period, when dinosaurs were just beginning to go extinct, but there were some reasons why dinosaurs could not live in these lands.
Why couldn’t dinosaurs survive in our country?
Although the Anatolian geography had terrestrial regions in the last period where dinosaurs lived, Anatolia did not have fertile conditions for dinosaurs to feed in the Late Cretaceous Period.
Not only was there a shortage of food, but also terrestrial transportation was very difficult. We can say that it is almost impossible to find traces of dinosaurs in the Anatolian geography due to reasons such as food shortage and unsuitable living conditions.
Did the fossil found in Kastamonu 23 years ago belong to a dinosaur?
In 1999, Hacettepe University Faculty of Engineering Department of Geology Lecturer Assoc. Dr. When Cemal Tunoğlu found a 70-million-year-old fossil, a big question mark arose in minds. Did this fossil belong to a dinosaur that lived in Anatolian lands?
Discovered around the Beyler Dam in Kastamonu, this dinosaur-like fossil, which surprised and excited everyone with its size, turned out to be a marine reptile that lived in water, not on land.
As a result; Considering that our country consisted of huge pieces of water in the times when the dinosaurs lived and it took a long time to become what it is today, it is quite natural that there are no dinosaur remains in the lands we live in.
Sources: TÜBİTAK, INDEPENDENT
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