What it is
A slender early reptile with a lizard-like body and long, thin toes. Araeoscelids belong to the early diapsids, one of the commonest kinds of animal in the Robledo Mountains of New Mexico about 280 million years ago.
Known by its feet
Prints with long, thin toes in the Robledo rocks are called Dromopus. The monument's scientists identify the animal that made them as an araeoscelid, with a lizard-like foot. Dromopus is one of the three commonest kinds of track there.
Hunter and hunted
Small, salamander-like amphibians and lizard-like reptiles hunted the insects and other small creatures. Bigger predators, above all pelycosaurs like Dimetrodon, hunted them.