Coelophysis bauri
Coelophysis is an extinct genus of coelophysid theropod dinosaurs that lived approximately 215 to 201.4 million years ago during the late Triassic period from the middle Norian to Rhaetian age in what is now the southwestern United States. Megapnosaurus was once considered to be a species within this genus, but this interpretation has been challenged and the genus Megapnosaurus is now considered valid.

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- CoelophysisPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Coelophysis
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Time the record covers
At most 26 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 227.3 Mya and 201.4 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
6 occurrences of Coelophysis bauri on record, most of them in the Late Triassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
6 occurrences- Late Triassic100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
1 formation
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The named rock units Coelophysis bauri has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Coelophysis bauri and its relatives
Late TriassicWhere Coelophysis bauri and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.
Found in the same rock
20 taxa- Archosauriformes1 site
- Avicranium renestoi1 site
- Chinlea sorenseni1 site
- Crocodylomorpha1 site
- Daemonosaurus chauliodus1 site
- Darwinula1 site
- Drepanosauridae1 site
- Drepanosaurus1 site
- Dromomeron romeri1 site
- Effigia okeeffeae1 site
- Eucoelophysis1 site
- Hesperosuchus agilis1 site
- Lasalichthys stewarti1 site
- Ptychotherates bucculentus1 site
- Redondasaurus bermani1 site
- Redondasaurus gregorii1 site
- Reptilia1 site
- Shipingia1 site
- Vancleavea campi1 site
- Whitakersaurus bermani1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Coelophysis bauri, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
4 references- The type locality of Coelophysis, a Late Triassic dinosaur from north-central New Mexico (USA)2
- The dinosaurian genus <i>Coelurus</i>2
- The little dinosaurs of Ghost Ranch1
- A contribution to the history of the Vertebrata of the Trias of North America1
Each of the 6 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content3
Picture of Coelophysis bauri
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- James St. John
- Licence
- CC BY 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Coelophysis bauri · AMNH:farb:7240
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- Geoffrey Marchal
- Licence
- CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
- Commercial use
- the licence does not allow it
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Coelophysis”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itCoelophysis through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Cope 1887)