Coelophysis
"hollow form"
[ Measurements | Time | Place | Remains | Essay | Images ]

CLASSIFICATION

Coelophysis Cope & Colbert, 1964 [nomen conservandum]
Animalia
Vertebrata
Tetrapoda
Sauropsida
Archosauromorpha
Ornithodira
Dinosauria
Theropoda
Coelophysoidea

see also: Genus Index, Classification


MEASUREMENTS

LENGTH: 2.5 m to 3 m MASS: 15 kg to 30 kg

see also: World Records


TIME

late Carnian? to early Norian

see also: Ages of the Mesozoic


PLACE

Arizona, New Mexico & Utah?

see also: Paleo-Maps


REMAINS

see also: Anatomy


ESSAY

Coelophysis, a very common little hunter of the Late Triassic, came in two forms, "robust" and "gracile". These two forms, or "morphs", probably represent the two genders.

There was a recent disagreement over the proper name for Coelophysis. The type specimen (that is, the specimen used to define the genus) was rather fragmentary. Most of our knowledge of Coelophysis comes instead from dozens of very well-preserved specimens found at a site called Ghost Ranch. Some scientists recently argued that the Ghost Ranch dinosaurs might not necessarily be the same as the original Coelophysis specimen. They proposed a new name for the Ghost Ranch dinosaurs - Rioarribasaurus. But by this time the association of the name Coelophysis with the Ghost Ranch material had become heavily entrenched in dinosaur terminology. The ICZN (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature) voted to redefine the type specimen of Coelophysis as one of the Ghost Ranch specimens. So the name Rioarribasaurus has been officially dropped.

The original type material, which may or may not belong to the same kind of animal as the neotype, has been given its own (dubious) genus: Eucoelophysis ("true Coelophysis").

A Coelophysis skull from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History became the first dinosaur fossil to be taken into space on January 22, 1998 when the Endeavor Space Shuttle took off for Mir Space Station.


IMAGES

Click on thumbnail to see full image.

SHIRAISHI MINEO

Digital (Two-Dimensional)

[THUMBNAIL] early predator Coelophysis bauri

BRENDAN SMITH

Photography

[THUMBNAIL] the skull of the early hunter Coelophysis bauri

LUC J. "ASPIDEL" BAILLY

Pencil

[THUMBNAIL] A Coelophysis bauri hunts in the Triassic forest (with Dicroidium flora).

MORELL CRAVENS III

Pencil

[THUMBNAIL] the head of small predator Coelophysis bauri

JULIUS CSOTONYI

Ink

[THUMBNAIL] sundry theropods
I.    Alvarezsaurus calvoi
II.   Coelophysis bauri
III.  Baryonyx walkeri
IV.   Oviraptor philoceratops
V.    Aublysodon mirandis
VI.   Anserimimus planinychus
VII.  Avimimus portentosus
VIII. Compsognathus longipes
IX.   Carnotaurus sastrei
X.    Ceratosaurus nasicornis
(These are not to the same scale. Alvarezsaurus may have been a bird, and therefore feathered.)

see also: Art Gallery


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