DINOSAURS may have contributed to their own demise by conquering too much of the planet, according to latest research.

A study from the University of Reading has uncovered that dinosaurs became too widespread as a species and became extinct due to a lack of space.

The work, which has been published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, links to a previous study from the university, which revealed dinosaurs were in decline for 50 million years before an asteroid hit Earth.

Ciara O’Donovan, an evolutionary biologist and lead author of the study, said: “There was nowhere new for species, which may have prevented new species from arising, contributing to the dinosaurs’ pre-asteroid decline.

“Our research fills this gap in prehistory by revealing how the dinosaurs spread and how fast they moved. In essence, they were perhaps too successful for their own good.”