--- title: Why Dinosaurs Avoided One Area for Over 30 Million Years description: Carbon dioxide levels during this period were four to six times the current levels canonical: https://time.com/3922577/dinosaurs-tropics-scientists/ author: Jacob Koffler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-16T14:03:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:55.052Z article:section: Science og:title: The Surprising Reason Dinosaurs Avoided One Area for Over 30 Million Years og:description: A longtime mystery has been solved og:url: https://time.com/3922577/dinosaurs-tropics-scientists/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfca20889e1b492e5/698854cf5f570f579db1c03b/dinosaur.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Tyrannosaurus rex og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Surprising Reason Dinosaurs Avoided One Area for Over 30 Million Years twitter:description: A longtime mystery has been solved twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfca20889e1b492e5/698854cf5f570f579db1c03b/dinosaur.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Surprising Reason Dinosaurs Avoided One Area for Over 30 Million Years > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Waking the Dead: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life [Watch (HLS stream): Waking the Dead: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7mURxfr4.m3u8) (4:03)  _Published 2014-03-12. Conservationists and scientists have a saying, "extinction is forever." But soon biologists will clone long-gone animals in the hope to redefine that axiom to "DE-extinction is forever."_ by [Jacob Koffler](https://time.com/author/jacob-koffler/) ## Jacob Koffler Jun 16, 2015 2:03 PM UTC  Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, illustration Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, illustration Getty Images by [Jacob Koffler](https://time.com/author/jacob-koffler/) ## Jacob Koffler Jun 16, 2015 2:03 PM UTC Scientists have long wondered why the dinosaurs that spread across the globe 230 million years ago largely avoided living near the equator—and now the mystery has finally been solved. A group of scientists at the University of Utah found that the tropical climate around the equator vacillated between long dry spells and fiery heat that set vegetation ablaze, according to the [study](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub%5Freleases/2015-06/uou-wbd061015.php), released on Monday. With no consistent source of vegetative food, large plant-eating dinosaurs were unable to live in the region. Instead, only a few small meat-eating dinosaurs were able to find a food source near the equator. The study is the first to provide a detailed look at Earth’s climate and ecology during the time when dinosaurs were emerging. Researchers found that the carbon dioxide levels during this period were four to six times the current levels—which the scientists say should provide a warning for the future. “If we continue along our present course, similar conditions in a high-CO2 world may develop, and suppress low-latitude ecosystems,” said Randal Irmis, a co-author of the study. The study’s findings came as an Italian magazine [leaked Pope Francis’ long-awaited encyclical](http://time.com/3921416/pope-francis-encyclical-leaked/) on climate change and months before the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference in Paris. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached a [record high ](http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2014/09/09/carbon-dioxide-level-united-nations/15324523/)for modern times in 2013. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3922577/dinosaurs-tropics-scientists/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3922577/dinosaurs-tropics-scientists/"},"headline":"The Surprising Reason Dinosaurs Avoided One Area for Over 30 Million Years","datePublished":"2015-06-16T14:03:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:55.052Z","description":"The climate was inhospitable","url":"https://time.com/3922577/dinosaurs-tropics-scientists/","keywords":["climate change","Science topic","dinosaurs"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfca20889e1b492e5/698854cf5f570f579db1c03b/dinosaur.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jacob Koffler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jacob-koffler/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfca20889e1b492e5/698854cf5f570f579db1c03b/dinosaur.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Tyrannosaurus rex","caption":"Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, illustration","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate-change/","name":"climate change"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3922577/dinosaurs-tropics-scientists/","name":"The Surprising Reason Dinosaurs Avoided One Area for Over 30 Million Years"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Waking the Dead: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life","description":"Conservationists and scientists have a saying, \"extinction is forever.\" But soon biologists will clone long-gone animals in the hope to redefine that axiom to \"DE-extinction is forever.\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7mURxfr4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-03-12T14:27:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7mURxfr4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3922577/dinosaurs-tropics-scientists/","duration":"PT4M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3922577/dinosaurs-tropics-scientists/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```