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Dinosaurs flourished in Europe right up until the asteroid impact that wiped them out 66 million years ago, a new study shows.

While the theory that an asteroid rapidly killed off the dinosaurs is widely recognised, up until recently fossils of the last dinosaurs were found almost exclusively from North America. 

The new study brings together a series of studies on European dinosaurs over the past two decades, which found Cretaceous dinosaurs in Spain, France, Romania, and other countries.  

Pictured is the evolution of the European continental ecosystems around the time dinosaurs went extinct. The diverse vertebrates of the latest Cretaceous are shown, with dinosaurs in France, crocodiles in Hungary and other mammals almost wiped out (bottom image), with a few groups surviving into the Paleogene (top image)

It claims to address speculation about whether the sudden decline of dinosaurs in the American and Canadian west was merely a local story. 

By looking at the variety and ages of these fossils, a team of researchers led by Zoltán Csiki-Sava of the University of Bucharest, determined that dinosaurs remained diverse in European ecosystems very late into the Cretaceous.

The Cretaceous is known for being the last portion of the 'Age of Dinosaurs' and lasted 79 million years, ending 65.5 million years ago.

In the Pyrenees of Spain and France, the best area in Europe for finding latest Cretaceous dinosaurs, meat and plant-eating species are present and seemingly flourishing during the final few hundred thousand years before the asteroid hit.

The new study suggests that European dinosaurs were thriving up to the asteroid impact. In this artist's depiction, a Daspletosaurus (predator on the left) attacks a herd of Centrosaurus during the Cretaceous

Dr Csiki-Sava said 'For a long time, Europe was overshadowed by other continents when the understanding of the nature, composition and evolution of latest Cretaceous continental ecosystems was concerned. 

'The last 25 years witnessed a huge effort across all Europe to improve our knowledge, and now we are on the brink of fathoming the significance of these new discoveries, and of the strange and new story they tell about life at the end of the Dinosaur Era.'

Dr Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences , an author on the report, added: 'Everyone knows that an asteroid hit 66 million years ago and dinosaurs disappeared, but this story is mostly based on fossils from one part of the world, North America.

'We now know that European dinosaurs were thriving up to the asteroid impact, just like in North America. This is strong evidence that the asteroid really did kill off dinosaurs in their prime, all over the world at once.'