Dinosaurs 'survived in a remote 'lost world' for half a million years before extinction'

Dinosaurs survived extinction for another 500,000 years in a remote 'Lost World', scientists claim.

New evidence suggests an "isolated community" escaped annihilation and lived on a rocky, desert plateau in North America.

Until now, palaeontologists widely believed the creatures were wiped out 65 million years ago when an asteroid collided with Earth.

But now experts say a "pocket" of dinosaurs survived and roamed a remote area of what is now New Mexico and Colorado.

Carbon dating of newly-discovered bones in the San Juan Basin proves that these lived for another half-a-million years.

The discovery, published this week in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica, has been hailed as one of the most important breakthroughs in palaeontology this century.

It also brings Hollywood's 'Lost World' – Steven Spielberg's sequel to Jurassic Park – and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel of the same name, a step closer to reality.

The bones were discovered buried at Ojo Alamo, a soft sandstone valley deep in the remote San Juan Basin.

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