The discovery of a dinosaur suggests it might have evaded the extinction event that is believed to have eradicated its fellow species.

This finding has prompted a theory that small "groups" of dinosaurs managed to survive for up to 500,000 years following the devastating asteroid impact, which eliminated all other colossal reptiles.

The recovered bones, belonging to a 40-foot hadrosaur, a herbivorous dinosaur characterized by its beak-like bill, point to an individual that lived approximately 64.5 million years ago.

Remarkably, this timeline places the dinosaur's existence half a million years after the asteroid strike, which is widely considered the demise of most dinosaurs but not of creatures that later evolved into present-day descendants like crocodiles.

It's believed that these surviving hadrosaurs could have inhabited a region now encompassed by the U.S. states of Colorado and New Mexico. These ancient fossils, discovered eight decades ago, have now been accurately dated using radioactive and magnetic techniques.

Despite this fascinating conclusion, the age of these fossils has been a subject of debate among scientists for over eighty years.