Scipionyx
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| Scipionyx Fossil range: Early Cretaceous |
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 Scipionyx samniticus fossil at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, in Milan, Italy.
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Scipionyx is a very small genus of theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Italy, around 113 million years ago. There has been only one skeleton discovered, which is notable for the preservation of soft tissue and internal organs. It is the fossil of a juvenile only a few inches long. Adult size is estimated to be 2 metres (approx. 6 feet). The name Scipionyx comes from the Latin word Scipio and the Greek onyx, meaning "Scipio's claw", and for Scipione Breislak,[1] the geologist who wrote the first description of the formation in which the fossil was found. The specific name samniticus means "From the Samnium", the Latin name of the region around Pietraroja. The specimen is also popularly nicknamed "Skippy".[1]
Scipionyx was discovered in the spring of 1981 by Giovanni Todesco, an amateur paleontologist, near Pietraroja, approximately 30 miles from Naples.[1] The fossils were preserved in the Pietraroia limestone formation, well known for unusually well-preserved fossils. Todesco thought the remains belonged to that of a fossil bird. Unaware of the importance of his findings, he kept the strange fossil in the basement of his house until 1992 when he met two paleontologists, Cristiano dal Sasso of the Natural History Museum of Milan and Marco Signore of the University of Naples Federico II,[1] who identified it as the first Italian dinosaur. The magazine Oggi gave the tiny dinosaur the nickname Ciro, a typical Neapolitan name. In 1998, Scipionyx made the front cover of Nature.[2]
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[edit] Classification
Scipionyx is classified as a coelurosaurid theropod. Because the only remains recovered belong to that of a juvenile, it has not been possible to assign this dinosaur to a specific infraorder. Coelurosaur characteristics included a sacrum (a series of vertebrae that attach to the hips) longer than in other dinosaurs, a tail stiffened towards the tip, and a bowed ulna (lower arm bone). The tibia (lower leg bone) is also characteristically longer than the femur (upper leg bone) in coelurosaurs. Fossil evidence indicates that most coelurosaurs were probably feathered.
[edit] Paleobiology
Scipionyx is considered one of the most important fossil vertebrates ever discovered, after a long and painstaking "autopsy" revealed the unique fossilisation of portions of its internal organs. Parts of the windpipe, intestines, liver, and muscles were preserved in the fine limestone. The specimen's liver was so well preserved that it is thought it retains both the shape and color it had when the animal was alive. The find has implications because the relative positions of internal organs of dinosaurs could only be guessed before this discovery. The overall length of the intestines — shorter than what was expected — indicates Scipionyx could process food very efficiently.[1]
It is believed Scipionyx lived in a region filled with shallow lagoons. These bodies of water were oxygen deficient, leading to the well-preserved Scipionyx specimen, much like the fine fossil preservation seen in Germany's Archaeopteryx.[1]
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