The Triassic Period
Coelophysis was a small Dinosaur, build for speed and agility. Standing about 6.5ft tall, its powerful rear legs and long, thin body made it a fast and deadly Predator. Palaeontologists believe that Coelophysis was a pack animal, living and hunting in groups. Some of the adult skeletons found contain baby Coelophysis inside the ribcages. At first, scientists believe that Coelophysis gave birth to live young, rather than laying eggs. Now, we think that they were canninbals and sometimes, its own young. However, its main source of food was meat from other animals.
Riojasaurus was a massive four-legged herbivore. It may have lived in herds, wandering across an ancient marshy landscape full of ferns, horse-tails,gingko and conifer trees. With its long neck it could reach into foliage, feeding off the parts that were too high for other dinosaurs. Its teeth combed leaves from the branches and its strong tongue pushed them to the back of its throat.
Plateosaurus was a smaller relative of the most famous dinosaur Apatosaurus, although it lived much earlier. It was a large dinosaur with a long tail, which probably made up almost half of its total weight. Plateosaurus would have moved around looking for on all four legs, but would sometimes have stood up on its back legs to stretch up to higher branches.