Scipionyx
| Scipionyx | ||||||||||||
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Scipionyx samniticus in the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| early Albium ( Lower Cretaceous ) | ||||||||||||
| 112 to 99.6 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Scipionyx | ||||||||||||
| dal Sasso & Signore , 1998 | ||||||||||||
Scipionyx samniticus is a theropod dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Italy . So far there is only one skeleton find, this is known for its special preservation of soft tissues and internal organs . It is the fossil of a young animal 25 centimeters long. The length of the adult animals is estimated to be two meters. The name Scipionyx is made up of the Latin name Scipio, alluding to the geologist Scipione Breislak , who was the first todescribethe formation in which the fossil was found, and the Greek word onyx (claw). The type epitheton samniticus stands for the Latin name Samnium , whichrefers to the areaaround Pietraroja (near Salerno ).
Find history
Scipionyx was discovered in the spring of 1981 by the amateur paleontologist Giovanni Todesco near Pietraroja , about 50 km north of Naples , in a limestone formation known for its unusually well-preserved fossils . Deathco was not aware of the importance of the find, he initially thought it was a fossil bird and kept it in his cellar until 1992, when he worked with the two paleontologists Cristiano Dal Sasso from the Natural History Museum of Milan and Marco Signore from the University of Naples Federico II met who identified the find as the first Italian dinosaur . In 1998, Scipionyx was featured on the cover of Nature magazine .
classification
Scipionyx was originally described as a member of the Maniraptoriformes with an unclear close relationship. It has typical coelurosaur features , a longer sacrum compared to other dinosaurs , a tail stiffened towards the tip and a curved ulna (ulna). Furthermore, the tibia (shin bone) is longer than the femur (thigh bone). There are seven teeth on each maxillary .
The American paleontologist Thomas R. Holtz Jr. sees it outside of the Maniraptoriformes and assigns the taxon directly to the Coelurosauria, without family affiliation. Since only a young animal skeleton is currently available, a more specific assignment is not possible.
Paleobiology
From a paleobiological point of view, Scipionyx is a very significant find, as the unique fossilization has preserved parts of the internal organs. Parts of the windpipe and the intestine , the liver and some muscles are clearly visible in the fine limestone. Until then, one could only speculate about the internal organs and their relative position. The unexpectedly short bowel suggests efficient food utilization.
literature
- Thomas R. Holtz Jr. , Ralph E. Molnar, Philip J. Currie : Basal Tetanurae. In: David B. Weishampel , Peter Dodson , Halszka Osmólska (eds.): The Dinosauria. 2nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-520-24209-2 , pp. 71-110.
- Cristiano Dal Sasso , Marco Signore: Exceptional soft-tissue preservation in a theropod dinosaur from Italy. In: Nature . Vol. 392, No. 6674, 1998, pp. 383-387, doi : 10.1038 / 32884 .
