Basic info Taxonomic history Classification Included Taxa
Morphology Ecology and taphonomy External Literature Search Age range and collections

Coelophysis

Reptilia - Coelophysidae

Taxonomy
Coelophysis was named by Cope (1889). It is the type genus of Coelophysoidea, Coelophysidae, Coelophysinae.

It was considered a nomen dubium by Hunt and Lucas (1991).

It was assigned to Goniopoda by Cope (1889); to Hallopodidae by Nopcsa (1901); to Coeluridae by Huene (1902), Hay (1902), Huene (1908), Huene (1909), von Zittel (1911), Huene (1920), Case (1922) and Hay (1930); to Coelurosauria by Huene (1926), Kuhn (1939), Bonaparte (1969) and Swinton (1970); to Theropoda by Padian (1986); to Procompsognathidae by Romer (1966), Madsen and Miller (1979), Ostrom (1981) and Parrish and Carpenter (1986); to Ceratosauria by Benton (1990) and Long and Murry (1995); to Ceratosauria by Gauthier (1986), Rowe (1989), Rowe and Gauthier (1990) and Currie (1997); to Podokesauridae by Huene (1914), Huene (1914), Huene (1914), Huene (1914), Huene (1914), Huene (1915), Romer (1956), Tatarinov (1964), Colbert (1964), Simmons (1965), Kuhn (1966), Steel (1970), Colbert (1972), Bonaparte (1975), Raath (1977), Anderson and Cruickshank (1978), Ostrom (1978), Thulborn (1984), Russell (1984), Battail (1986), Brinkman and Sues (1987), Chatterjee (1987), Carroll (1988), Jain (1990) and Thulborn (2006); to Coelophysoidea by Carrano et al. (2005), Irmis (2005) and Hendrickx and Mateus (2014); to Coelophysinae by Nopcsa (1928), Paul (1988), Sereno (1998) and Ezcurra (2017); and to Coelophysidae by Welles (1984), Novas (1991), Novas (1992), Rowe et al. (1997), Sereno (1997), Holtz (2000), Rauhut (2003), Bristowe and Raath (2004), Tykoski and Rowe (2004), Yates (2005), Smith and Merrill (2006), Ezcurra (2006), Rinehart et al. (2007), Ezcurra and Novas (2007), Ezcurra (2007), Nesbitt et al. (2007), Ezcurra and Cuny (2007) and Martinez and Apaldetti (2017).

Synonyms
Synonymy list
YearName and author
1889Coelophysis Cope p. 626
1901Coelophysis Nopcsa p. 201
1902Coelophysis Hay p. 493
1902Coelophysis Huene
1908Coelophysis Huene p. 307
1909Coelophysis Huene p. 13
1911Podokesaurus Talbot
1911Coelophysis von Zittel p. 280
1912Podokesaurus Lull p. 411
1914Coelophysis Huene p. 11
1914Podokesaurus Huene p. 11
1914Coelophysis Huene p. 33
1914Podokesaurus Huene p. 33
1914Coelophysis Huene p. 146
1914Podokesaurus Huene p. 146
1914Coelophysis Huene p. 154
1914Podokesaurus Huene p. 154
1914Coelophysis Huene p. 445
1914Podokesaurus Huene p. 445
1915Coelophysis Huene p. 500
1915Podokesaurus Lull p. 156
1917Podokesaurus Lull p. 111
1920Coelophysis Huene p. 162
1920Podokesaurus Huene p. 162
1921Podokesaurus Huene p. 320
1922Coelophysis Case p. 80
1924Podokesaurus Lull p. 231
1926Coelophysis Huene p. 104
1928Coelophysis Nopcsa p. 183
1928Podokesaurus Nopcsa p. 183
1930Coelophysis Hay p. 186
1930Podokesaurus Hay p. 187
1939Coelophysis Kuhn p. 35
1939Podokesaurus Kuhn p. 35
1953Podokesaurus Lull p. 131
1956Coelophysis Romer p. 611
1956Podokesaurus Romer p. 611
1964Coelophysis Colbert p. 11
1964Coelophysis Tatarinov p. 530
1964Podokesaurus Tatarinov p. 530
1965Coelophysis Simmons p. 56
1965Podokesaurus Simmons p. 56
1966Coelophysis Kuhn p. 92
1966Coelophysis Romer p. 369
1966Podokesaurus Romer p. 369
1969Coelophysis Bonaparte p. 475
1970Coelophysis Steel p. 10
1970Coelophysis Swinton p. 122
1972Coelophysis Colbert p. 5
1975Coelophysis Bonaparte p. 58
1977Coelophysis Raath p. 206
1977Podokesaurus Raath p. 207
1978Coelophysis Anderson and Cruickshank p. 31
1978Coelophysis Ostrom p. 115
1979Coelophysis Madsen and Miller p. 5
1981Coelophysis Ostrom p. 193
1984Coelophysis Russell p. 22
1984Podokesaurus Russell p. 22
1984Coelophysis Thulborn p. 132
1984Coelophysis Welles p. 177
1986Coelophysis Battail p. 47
1986Coelophysis Gauthier p. 9
1986Coelophysis Padian pp. 57-58
1986Coelophysis Parrish and Carpenter p. 156
1987Coelophysis Brinkman and Sues p. 502
1987Coelophysis Chatterjee p. 186
1988Coelophysis Carroll
1988Podokesaurus Carroll
1988Coelophysis Paul p. 259
1989Coelophysis Rowe
1990Coelophysis Benton p. 19
1990Coelophysis Jain p. 75
1990Coelophysis Rowe and Gauthier p. 152
1991Rioarribasaurus Hunt and Lucas p. 195
1991Coelophysis Novas p. 401
1992Coelophysis Novas p. 141
1995Rioarribasaurus Heckert et al. p. 29
1995Coelophysis Long and Murry p. 186
1997Coelophysis Currie p. 732
1997Coelophysis Rowe et al. p. 108
1997Coelophysis Sereno p. 456
1998Coelophysis Sereno p. 64
2000Coelophysis Holtz, Jr. p. 15
2003Coelophysis Rauhut p. 138
2004Coelophysis Bristowe and Raath p. 39
2004Podokesaurus Carrano and Sampson p. 553 fig. 4
2004Coelophysis Tykoski and Rowe p. 48
2004Podokesaurus Tykoski and Rowe p. 48
2005Coelophysis Carrano et al. pp. 843-844 fig. 13
2005Coelophysis Irmis p. 81
2005Coelophysis Yates p. 118 fig. 9
2006Coelophysis Ezcurra p. 657 fig. 3
2006Coelophysis Smith and Merrill p. 597
2006Coelophysis Thulborn p. 288
2006Podokesaurus Weishampel p. 137
2007Coelophysis Ezcurra p. 192
2007Coelophysis Ezcurra and Cuny p. 78 fig. 6
2007Coelophysis Ezcurra and Novas p. 36
2007Coelophysis Nesbitt et al. p. 219
2007Coelophysis Rinehart et al. p. 175
2014Coelophysis Hendrickx and Mateus
2017Coelophysis Ezcurra p. 531 fig. 12
2017Coelophysis Martinez and Apaldetti p. 502

Is something missing? Join the Paleobiology Database and enter the data

RankNameAuthor
kingdomAnimalia()
—Bilateria
—EubilateriaAx 1987
—Deuterostomia
phylumChordataHaeckel 1874
subphylumVertebrata
superclassGnathostomata
—Osteichthyes()
subclassSarcopterygii()
subclassDipnotetrapodomorpha(Nelson 2006)
subclassTetrapodomorpha()
—Tetrapoda
—Reptiliomorpha
—Anthracosauria
subclassAmphibiosauriaKuhn 1967
—Cotylosauria()
—Amniota
—Sauropsida
classReptilia
RankNameAuthor
subclassEureptilia()
—Romeriida
—Diapsida()
—Archosauromorpha(Huene 1946)
—Crocopoda
—ArchosauriformesGauthier 1986
—Eucrocopoda
—Archosauria()
informalAvemetatarsalia
—Ornithodira
—Dinosauromorpha
—Dinosauriformes
—Dinosauria()
—Theropoda()
—Neotheropoda
superfamilyCoelophysoidea
familyCoelophysidae
subfamilyCoelophysinae
genusCoelophysis

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

G. †Coelophysis Cope 1889
show all | hide all
†Coelophysis bauri Cope 1887
hide
Invalid names: Coelurus longicollis Cope 1887 [synonym], Rioarribasaurus colberti Hunt and Lucas 1991 [synonym], Tanystropheus willistoni Cope 1887 [synonym]
Invalid names: Podokesaurus Talbot 1911 [synonym], Rioarribasaurus Hunt and Lucas 1991 [objective synonym]
Diagnosis
ReferenceDiagnosis
A. Bristowe and M. A. Raath 2004The diagnosis of the genus Coelophysis is founded on a hypodigm consisting of the specimens discovered by Cope and attributed to C. bauri and the species regarded as synonyms, C. longicollis and C. willistoni, as well as complete skeletons of C. bauri excavated at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, by Colbert. Coelophysis differs from Eoraptor, Herrerasaurus and Staurikosaurus by the presence of pleurocoels in the dorsal vertebrae, the more elongated dorsal vertebrae, five fused sacral vertebrae, dolichoiliac ilium, presence of a small lateral projection on the distal end of the tibia and the functionally tridactyl foot with metatarsal I that is attached to metatarsal II and does not reach the ankle joint (Rauhut 2003). It differs from Gojirasaurus in the relatively lower dorsal neural spines and the significantly smaller size, from Liliensternus in the absence of the broad ridge that extends from the posterior end of the diapophysis to the posterior end of the vertebral centrum in cervical vertebrae and the smaller size, from Procompsognathus in the considerably larger overall size, and from Shuvosaurus in the lack of any derived cranial features of the latter taxon (Rauhut 2003). The posterolateral nasal process is the same in C. bauri as in C. rhodesiensis and C. kayentakatae.