Outline: a typical early ornithischian
Eucoelophysis
"true hollow form"
- Lived
- 227 to 201 million years ago, Late Triassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Early ornithischians, Silesauridae
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Sullivan and Lucas 1999
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
210 million years ago
Field notes
About Eucoelophysis
What it was like
Eucoelophysis was a slender, four-legged plant eater from the silesaurids, close cousins of dinosaurs or perhaps the earliest ornithischians. It is known from leg and hip bones.
Its world
It lived in the Late Triassic, in what is now New Mexico. It comes from the Chinle Formation, where it lived beside the early theropod Coelophysis.
How it was found
Sullivan and Lucas named Eucoelophysis in 1999. They first thought it was a relative of Coelophysis, which explains its name, but later study showed it was a silesaurid.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Silesauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: R. M. Sullivan and S. G. Lucas. 1999. Eucoelophysis baldwini, a new theropod dinosaur from the Upper Triassic of New Mexico, and the status of the original types of Coelophysis. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 19(1):81-90