Coelophysis Not A Cannibal
I have a passing interest in paleontology and had the opportunity several years ago to attend a class taught by Edwin “Ned” Colbert, the famous paleontologist who actually discovered the dinosaur known as Coelophysis. He was Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City for many years. Here is a picture of him with a Coelophysis skeleton.
Click here for a larger image.
The best part was the class was taught in New Mexico at Ghost Ranch where the quarry was discovered (you can see photos of the are here).
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The above photo is by UGAclint from his flickr account. This photo shows that at Ghost Ranch you can view a very large portion of the earth’s history as seen through the rock layers.
So I was very interested to read this recent article concerning some new developments with this very old dinosaur.
Myth Busted: Dinosaur Not a Cannibal - Yahoo! News
One of the famous fossils from there was one that distinctly looks like there are bones of a small dinosuar which looks like Coelophysis inside the abdomen of another large adult dinosaur. This is currently at the American Museum of Natural History and here is a photo of it. I have seen this one as well as another in the Ruth Hall Museum of Paleontology at Ghost Ranch.
Click here for a larger image.
Seems the bones inside the adult Coelophysis are NOT a infant Coelophysis but another small crocodilian species that lived during the same time period (early Triassic). So Coelophysis was NOT a cannibal! It’s too ad this happenedafter Ned Colbert passed away.
Here is a link to the abstract of the article from Biology Letters.
Prey choice and cannibalistic behaviour in the theropod Coelophysis
Here is the Edwin Colbert biography from Wikipedia.
Other Resources
“The Little Dinosaurs of Ghost Ranch” (Edwin Harris Colbert)
“Digging into the Past” (Edwin Harris Colbert): great autobiography of Ned’s early life.
“Great Dinosaur Hunters and Their Discoveries” (Edwin H. Colbert)
Coelophysis- Enchanted Learning Software
Technorati Tags: Coelophysis, dinosaur, Ned Colbert, paleontology
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