In 1947 a quarry at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico turned up hundreds of Coelophysis skeletons piled together, one of the great dinosaur bone beds and the reason Coelophysis is New Mexico’s state fossil. The ranch is also where Georgia O’Keeffe painted. There is a small palaeontology museum, and the landscape is the point. LOOK ONLY.
Coelophysis, Triassic reptiles · Late Triassic, ~205 mya
This ground is protected. Photograph it, record it, leave it where it lies. On US federal land the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act 2009 makes collecting vertebrate fossils an offence, and penalties are real.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
