R: Scypionyx (Ciro) huge monography published

[Renesto Silvio Claudio <silvio.renesto@uninsubria.it>]

Forgive my lame typing the correct name is Scipionyx, obviously.

________________________________________
Da: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] per conto di Renesto Silvio 
Claudio [silvio.renesto@uninsubria.it]
Inviato: martedì 21 giugno 2011 14.39
A: VRTPALEO@usc.edu
Cc: dinosaur@usc.edu
Oggetto: Scypionyx (Ciro) huge monography published

Gorgeous other than huge, I would say:

SCIPYONYX SAMNITICUS (THEROPODA, COMPSOGNATHIDAE) FROM THE LOWER CRETACEOUS OF 
ITALY

Cristiano Dal Sasso and Simone Maganuco

Memorie della Società Italiana e del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano 
37 (1) pp. 1-281

A complete, or more than complete description (obviously in English) of the 
little dinosaur from Pietraroja is finally available. The abstract itself is 
long,  so I would summarize the main topics:
The monography starts with an overview of the depositional environment and 
taphonomy, suggesting a single-event burial.
Part I deals with osteology and phylogeny. Each bone is detailed, and juvenile 
characters evaluated, then the classification and phylogenetic relationships 
are proposed (360 characters for 95 taxa), according to the authors Scipionyx 
is a compsognathid, the the sister taxon of Orkoraptor.
Part II deals with soft tissues: UV, SEM etc. investigations yielded lots of 
new data and allowed reintrepretation of some previous ones. BTW the supposed 
liver is really the liver. Even the histology of internal organs such as plicae 
of the  intestine and muscular fibers are illustrated and detailed. Also 
microstructures of the bones, blood vessels etc.  are detailed. The stomach and 
intestine content is examinated (Scipionyx ate a small lepidosaur, a couple of 
fishes and leg of a Chometokadmon-like  lepidosaur just before death) .
Part III deals with functional morphology and palaeobiology. Possible growth 
stage and adult size is also suggested.
About 180 fine illustrations are present, among which many colour and UV 
photos, drawings (by Marco Auditore) are simply excellent.
At the end of the monography there is a gallery with artists  restorations of 
Scipionyx, made by several Italian paleoartist, a nice add-on.
To get further info about the monography and about how to get one copy, I 
suggest to contact  Cristiano dal Sasso
cdalsasso@yahoo.com
or Simone Maganuco
simonemaganuco@iol.it
Cheers,

                                                                                
       Silvio