Coelophysis and Plateosaurus from the Triassic Period - coloring pages

 This is a second post for today on my free coloring pages blog.  

This blog has over 1500 drawn pages to print and color.

I drew all of the drawings except for a few drawn by grandnieces and grandnephews.

Today's second new drawing... the one on this post... is of the very 

early dinosaur called Coelophysis. 

Coelophysis in the Desert on the Edge of a Cliff

Coelophysis was one of the first true dinosaurs.  It was a lightly built Theropod dinosaur.  Other reptiles of its day still walked on 4 legs with their limbs spread out beside the body.  Dinosaurs walked with their legs UNDER their body.  The small Coelophysis would evolve eventually into huge killing machine Theropod dinos like Allosaurus, Giganotosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex... etc. 

Coelophysis was only about 9.8 feet or 3 meters long.  It lived in the late Triassic Period... about 196 million years ago.  It was about a meter tall at the shoulder.  It weighed or massed din the gracile form of only 33 lbs or about 15 kg.  In the robust form Coelophysis weighed around 44 lbs or 20 kg. Gracile means lighter built and robust means more heavily - muscular - and larger built.  Some paleontologists think that the female Theropods were the bigger sex of the species.  Modern birds of prey feature a female that is larger than the male.  

There was another branch of the dinosaur family that was already much bigger.  That was the Prosauropods (think pre-Sauropods).  They are also called Sauropodomorphs.  Their ancestors would go on to be the biggest land animals to walk the Earth... the gigantic Sauropods like Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Argentinosaurus, and Patagotitan... etc.  

I have been to a dinosaur quarry that had bones of many Coelophysis in the rock.  It was amazing to see a skull in the rock itself.  I have also held the extracted skull in my hands while at the BYU Earth Science Museum.  On the same day, we, (my wife and I) went to the Saints and Sinners Quarry with the BYU Geology Department.  This was a few years ago.  The Saints and Sinners Quarry site was once and oasis in a big desert.  The oasis included a big lake and all around and in the lake was teeming with life... including early dinosaurs.  

Coelophysis skull bones in rock at Saints and Sinners Quarry

Robin with intact Coelophysis Skull at BYU Earth Science Museum

NOTE:  To get the printable copy of this new drawing of Coelophysis just click on the Paleontology button and scroll down to the bottom of the Mesozoic Life section of the page.  Click on the title and you'll have your printable coloring page.  I am also adding some older drawings to this post today.   These older drawings are available in printable form in the same place... but further up the lists.  

Coelophysis at Oasis

Plateosaurus

(This is a Prosauropod that lived at the same time as Coelophysis.)