Dinosaurs have populated most of the Earth over 200 million years ago, however something has kept the species from colonizing regions along the Equator. This mystery has baffled scientists for a long time, but now it's a mystery no longer.

In a new study conducted by Jessica Whiteside and investigators at the University of Southampton, they found that dinosaurs have avoided the tropics for one reason: climate change.

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Regions along the Earth's equatorial zones have reportedly been rendered uninhabitable by the terrestrial beasts due to high levels of greenhouse gases.

The study compared Triassic-era's data of geographic distribution with data of the era's environmental conditions.

Whiteside and her team conducted the study for nine years. They utilized rock deposits from rivers and streams between the periods 205 million and 215 million years ago, reported NBC News.

The scientists used fossil charcoal to identify wildfire temperatures at the time. They also made use of pollen, fossil bones and spores in order to figure out what species of flora and fauna thrived in the regions. To identify carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and vegetation at the time, the scientists used carbon isotopes and oxygen from fossil organic matter, according to Live Science.

The report was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Gigantic plant-eating dinosaurs may have roamed middle and upper latitude areas of Earth, but just a handful of tiny, meat-eating ones invaded the tropics. The harsh climactic conditions generally made it difficult for them to survive.

The fossils showed the dramatic shifts in the Earth's climate. The extreme atmospheric heat caused wildfires which ultimately devastated plants thus making it hard for the reptiles to scavenge for food.

"Dinosaurs were fast-growing and they required a lot of resources," according to co-author Randall Irmis, working at the University of Utah's Department of Geology and Geophysics. "With unpredictable, hot and dry conditions, plant populations were changing all the time and you might have the dependable food supply you need."

Mostly from volcanic activity, the extreme weather conditions caused extreme levels of greenhouse gases. The volcanic eruptions at the time can be accounted as more than four times the levels as those seen in this century

Taking cue from the dinosaurs' extinction, the study's authors said the study's conclusions serve as a warning to this and future generations of humans. Right now, rapidly rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to undermine the future capacity of our planet's habitability, according to The Washington Post.

"We show that the climatic effects of increased CO2 significantly reshaped the land plant communities that are at the foundation of terrestrial food webs," according to Jessica Whiteside of Southampton University's National Oceanography Centre, the study's lead author.

For modern humans, rising carbon levels risk "considerable effects on the composition of ecosystems" that could survive on land, she added. "Our data reflect that there are possibly substantial hurdles to human sustainability in the future if we undergo the high CO2 levels predicted to occur in the coming 100-200 years." 

Tagsdinosaurs tropics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Science