Oldest records of the Late Triassic theropod dinosaur Coelophysis bauri

Coelophysis bauri is a well-known theropod dinosaur from the Upper Triassic of the southwestern United States. Prior to this study, it was only known from extensive remains from the Whitaker quarry, in the Rock Point Formation, of north-central New Mexico. Here, we document fossils of C. bauri from the Upper Triassic Snyder quarry, north-central New Mexico and from the Petrified Forest National Park. Both of these new records are from the Painted Desert Member of the Petrified Forest Formation, stratigraphically below the Rock Point Formation. This extends the biostratigraphic range of C. bauri to the early Revueltian (early-middle Norian) through the Apachean (late Norian-?Rhaetian). Thus, C. bauri is no longer an index taxon of the Apachean landvertebrate faunachron