Scipionyx
Scipionyx was a tiny meat-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Italy, about 113 million years ago. Its fossil is one of the most amazing ever found because it shows the dinosaur's insides, like muscles and guts, turned to stone!1
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Fun facts
Scipionyx is the first dinosaur ever found in Italy.1
The fossil is so well preserved that scientists can see the shapes of muscles, blood vessels, and even parts of the intestines.1
This dinosaur was a baby, only about 46 centimetres (18 inches) long, and probably just three days old when it died.1
Inside its stomach, scientists found bones and scales from lizards and fish, showing it ate a variety of small animals.1
Scipionyx had a long tail to balance its body and walked on two legs.1
The fossil was discovered in 1981 by an amateur fossil hunter who first thought it was a bird.1
Most asked questions about Scipionyx
?How big was Scipionyx?
The only known fossil is a baby about 46 centimetres (18 inches) long. Scientists think adults may have reached about 2.1 metres (7 feet) long, but no adult fossils have been found.12
?What did Scipionyx eat?
Scipionyx ate lizards and fish. Scientists found bones and scales from these animals inside its stomach.1
?Did Scipionyx have feathers?
No feathers were found on the fossil, but scientists think it probably had a fuzzy coat of primitive feathers, like its relatives.12
?Where was Scipionyx found?
It was found in Italy, near the village of Pietraroja, in 1981 by an amateur fossil hunter.1
?Is Scipionyx a dinosaur?
Yes, Scipionyx is a small meat-eating dinosaur called a theropod.1
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Scipionyx
- Named by
- Dal Sasso and Signore 19964
- Group
- Meat-eating dinos
- Family / clade
- Compsognathidae4
- Classification
- Theropoda > Compsognathidae4
- Age of the rocks
- 113 to 110 million years (Albian)4
- Countries
- Italy4
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- The only known Scipionyx fossil was found in 1981 by Giovanni Todesco, an amateur paleontologist, in a quarry near Pietraroja, Italy. It was named Scipionyx samniticus in 1998 by scientists Marco Signore and Cristiano Dal Sasso.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure how Scipionyx breathed. They have studied the position of its internal organs but disagree on the answer.1
Where the facts come from
- Scipionyx (en.wikipedia.org)
- Mesozoic Monthly: Scipionyx (carnegiemnh.org)
- Exceptional soft-tissue preservation in a theropod dinosaur from Italy | Nature (nature.com)
- Scipionyx in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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