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| Coelophysis Temporal range: Upper Triassic – Lower Jurassic, 202–196 mya | |
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| Mounted skeleton cast at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History | |
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| Genus: | Coelophysis |
| Binomial name | |
| Coelophysis bauri Cope, 1889 | |
Coelophysis was a small fast running carnivorous dinosaur. It is one of the earliest known genera of dinosaur. Coelophysis was found in Upper Triassic strata dated to about 200 million years ago (mya). It lived in what is now the southwestern United States. Similar dinosaurs are found all over the world at that time.
Coelophysis walked on two legs (as did all theropods). It was no more than about three feet (1 meter) tall at the hips but because of a long tail could be almost 10 feet (3 meters) long. There is some evidence that these animals hunted in packs, from the large numbers found together at the Ghost Ranch fossil site in New Mexico.
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