EXCEPTIONAL SOFT-TISSUE PRESERVATION IN A THEROPOD DINOSAUR FROM ITALY

The Lower Cretaceous Pietraroia Plattenkalk (Benevento Province, south ern Italy) has been known since the eighteenth century for its beautif ully preserved fossil fishes. During Albian time (about 113 Myr ago(1) ), deposition of fine marry limestone in a shallow lagoonal environmen t, affected by cyclic periods of low oxygen levels', led to exceptiona l preservation of soft tissue in a juvenile theropod. The specimen, di agnosed here as Scipionyx samniticus gen. et sp. nov., is the first di nosaur ever to be found in Italy. The fossil has been mentioned previo usly In two brief notes(3,4) and generally examined in a doctoral thes is(5). Here we report the full preparation of the specimen which shows details of soft anatomy never seen previously in any dinosaur. The pr eservation is better than in other lagerstatten (conservative deposits )(6) where theropod soft tissue has been reported, such as the Santana Formation of Brazil(7) and the Yixian Formation of China(8). Despite this, there is no evidence of feathers or any other integumentary remn ants in the Italian specimen. Scipionyx represents a new maniraptorifo rm theropod. Its discovery is remarkable considering also the scarcity of juvenile theropod dinosaurs in the fossil record.