The place:
Ghost Ranch is located near Abaquiu in New Mexico, south west United States of America. The fossil bearing rocks consist of sandstones and mudstones of the Late Triassic period.

The finds:
Ghost Ranch is one of the world's richest dinosaur finds with hundreds of skeletons of Coelophysis jumbled together. Skeletons of two distinct types of adults probably represent males and females and other smaller skeletons of younger Coelophysis have also been found. The crunched up bones of young Coelophysis were found in the stomach area of adults as evidence of cannibalism. Other fossils at the site include the remains of fish, phytosaurs, clams and crayfish

The environment:
In the Late Triassic period Ghost Ranch was in a river valley surrounded by hot seasonal plains and scrubland. Palaeontologists believe that the collection of fossils was the result of a mass death around a dwindling water resource during a drought. Before the bodies of the animals were eaten by scavengers, a flash flood buried them in muddy sediments where they were preserved. Evidence of cracks in the mud, crayfish burrows and the state of the skeletons support this theory.

The people:
The site was discovered by Edwin Colbert in 1947. Scientists have been excavating the beautifully preserved bones for the last 50 years building up a comprehensive picture of this early dinosaur.