← Rex's Notes

Coelophysis

Slim, fast, hollow-boned.

Said: see-LOW-fie-sis

Era: Triassic · 215 to 208 million years ago

Diet: Carnivore

Habitat: Arid floodplains of what is now New Mexico

Size: about the length of a sofa.

What it was like

Coelophysis was small, fast, and probably hunted in groups. Its bones were hollow inside, like a bird's, which made it light enough to sprint.

What we know now

The Ghost Ranch quarry preserves hundreds of articulated specimens, suggesting either a flash flood event or a herd or social grouping. Earlier claims of cannibalism based on small bones inside adult ribcages have been revisited; the small bones now appear to be crurotarsans rather than juvenile Coelophysis. Among the earliest theropods.

Notes

1. Took a trip to space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1998.
2. New Mexico's official state fossil.
3. Two distinct body shapes in the Ghost Ranch material may indicate sexual dimorphism.