Why haven't we discovered any dinosaur fossils in the Philippines?

A thread! Read to know our OFFICIAL National Dinosaur. Well, technically.

The Philippines literally did not exist when the dinosaurs were treading our planet.

Geological data shows that the Philippine islands likely surfaced some 50-60 million years ago—already 5-some million years after the non-avian* dinos went to dino heaven. (*to be explained)

By the time the Philippines was above the sea, it was connected to the Sunda shelf - a huge landmass that connects the Southeast Asian archipelagos that was traversible when the waters were on low tide.

This was the primary means of life to have been present on our islands!

We still have 50 million years before modern times, so what was the fauna then? Sadly (but not very), the world was already ran by mammals by the time life reached the Philippines. This still presents a wonderful case for the Philippine paleontologic scene!

The prime example of prehistoric fauna whose fossils have been found in the Philippines was the Stegodon (Stegodon luzonensis)

An elephant whose tusks were so long, forward-jutting and have little space between them that led experts to deduce that its trunk rested on one side!

Another is the Philippine rhinoceros (Rhinoceros philippensis) whose fossils were once excavated in what is now Metro Manila!

There is a chance that our rhino looked like the modern Sumatran rhino with some tufts of hair, which has the closest range to ours geographically.

The Philippine islands has also seen its population of giant tortoises. The Luzon giant tortoise (Megalochelys sondaari) was one of the largest land-dwelling testudines (turtles) ever!

Pictured is a Galapagos tortoise, but blow it up to the size of the skeleton.

As an archipelago and a biodiversity hotspot, of course we have our marine species. A growing icon of prehistoric predation is the Megalodon (Otodus megalodon) whose tooth fossils were collected from the Visayan islands.

As cartilaginous fishes—which means sharks, along with rays and other relatives, don't have bony skeletons like you or lions or birds; but have a skeleton made of cartilage like the stuff that makes up your ears—their not-as-solid skeletons are poorly preserved.

Shark teeth are the most common fossilized parts (though there are other parts that also fossilize). "But you said that sharks don't have bones and have skeletons made of cartilage!" Shark teeth are made of dentin—a very tough, calcified material.

I DIGRESS, now for the asterisked part. Back in the second tweet, I mentioned non-avian dinos. Avian, for those who don't know, just mean 'bird' (Aves) hence the terms 'aviator' and 'aviation' because they "fly".

And yes. Birds are ACTUAL dinosaurs. Actual T-Rex little shits.

As birds are dinosaurs, scientists coined the terms "avian" and "non-avian" to separate the present birds from the past, well, non-birds like the T-Rex and the Spinosaurus. BTW most of the dinosaurs had feathers. Deal with it. Jurassic Park showed you naked chickens.

Now that you know birds are dinosaurs, I introduce you to the OFFICIAL National Dinosaur of the Philippines.

Further reading:
1. https://www.flipscience.ph/prehistory/why-havent-we-found-dinosaurs-in-the-philippines-yet/#:~:text=The%20first%20Philippine%20island%20likely,the%20time%20of%20the%20dinosaurs
2. https://www.csub.edu/pacificrim/countryprospectus/history.htm#:~:text=Some%2050%20million%20years%20ago,built%20during%20the%20ice%20ages.
3. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/05/dinosaurs-survivors-birds-fossils/

I made this thread to make aware that we are living in the Golden Age of Paleontology! This thread might have some errors so feel free to drop errata or ask questions :) stan seventeen

Please don't peddle in the replies :T I didn't expect this to blow up this much but I expect that we behave as people craving for knowledge. But this is my account so here, I'm peddling my art because I'm opening commissions soon :) https://twitter.com/yuanalbano28/status/1209040963231870976

Mind y'all this is an overly-simplified explanation, but if it spins your cogs and you learned from it I couldn't be more thankful! Didn't expect Pinoys to like this sort of thing lol though u guys only liked tiktok plebs