COPROLITE – FOSSIL DINOSAUR FECES – UPPER TRIASSIC – NM

Description

These Coprolites represent the fecal deposits of a myriad array of dinosaur, aquatic and flying reptile and fish from the period known as the Triassic. It was the first period of the Mesozoic Era and occurred between 251 million and 199 million years ago. Following the great mass extinction at the end of the Permian Period, it was a time when life outside of the oceans began to diversify.Each would have shared the same shallow wetland and pond environment that existed in the area at the time. They were recovered from the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation of New Mexico. An analysis of other regional Upper Triassic assemblages instead imply that the evolutionary transition was gradual. Some dinosaur relatives preserved in this Chinle assemblage belong to groups previously known only from the Middle and lowermost Upper Triassic outside North America.

Some of the species that existed in the area at that time and those who would have been the sources for these coprolite specimens are Celophysis “raptor”, Reticulodus Synergus “shark”, Peteinosaur Pterosaur “flying reptile”, Redondosaurus “crocodile” and his two giant relatives Apachesaurus and Smilosuchas.