Dinosaurs reigned supreme for more than 160 million years. Their dynasty came to a cataclysmic close 66 million years ago when an asteroid crashed into the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico at a site now known as the Chicxulub crater, paving the way for mammals — and eventually humans — to inherit the Earth.

But had the extraterrestrial impact happened nearly anywhere else, like in the ocean or in the middle of most continents, some scientists now say it is possible dinosaurs could have survived annihilation. Only 13 percent of the Earth’s surface harbored the ingredients necessary to turn the cosmic collision into this specific mass extinction event, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

“I think dinosaurs could still be alive today,” if the asteroid had landed elsewhere, Kunio Kaiho, a paleontologist from Tohoku University in Japan and lead author on the study, said in an email.