 Because the only remains recovered belong to that of a juvenile, it has proven difficult to assign this dinosaur to a more specific group.One problem is that in the build of a juvenile animal the original traits of ancestor groups are more likely to be expressed, suggesting a too basal position in the evolutionary tree.Part of the 2011 monograph was a cladistic analysis which indicated that "Scipionyx" was a basal member of the Compsognathidae and the sister species of "Orkoraptor".