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Coelophysis

Part of Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.

Coelophysis

Museum explorers uncovered these Coelophysis specimens in a "death assemblage," in which a group of the same animal is found preserved. It is thought that these sites are the results of flooding, when carcasses were washed into a muddy pond and covered with silt.

Coelophysis was an agile, 8- to 10-foot-long dinosaur that weighed about 100 pounds. Its hands and feet were armed with lethal, curved claws to help catch and hold its prey, and the dinosaur's jaws were studded