New Mexico: Coelophysis bauri (state fossil)
New Mexico: Coelophysis bauri (state fossil)
New Mexico's state fossil is a small theropod dinosaur, Coelophysis bauri. Although its bones have been found in several southwestern states, the quarry at Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiu, New Mexico, is where all of the best specimens have been found -- dozens of them, in fact!
Coelophysis lived during the Late Triassic Period, about 210 million years ago, at a time when northern New Mexico was an arid, lowland environment. Periodic monsoonal rains interrupted the dry conditions, producing flash floods that swept across the land. One of these flash floods may have drowned an entire herd of Coelophysis, causing the great concentration of bones that is found at Ghost Ranch.
Coelophysis was a small, lightly-built predatory dinosaur around 10 feet long and weighing in the neighborhood of 100 pounds. It walked upright on its hind legs, grasping prey items in its slender forelimbs and attacking them with its jaws containing 100 small, sharp teeth. It probably ate lizards, amphibians, and even other small dinosaurs. Its lineage gave rise to the dinosaurs still living today -- the birds.
After a campaign by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Coelophysis became New Mexico's state fossil on March 17, 1981.
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