Fossil of 170-million-year-old flying reptile unearthed in Scotland is “largest of its kind ever discovered”

The fossil of a 170-million-year-old pterosaur, described as the best-preserved prehistoric winged reptile skeleton in the world, has been found on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, scientists said on Tuesday.

The National Museum of Scotland said the pterosaur fossil, popularly known as pterodactyl, is “the largest of its kind ever discovered since the Jurassic period”. The reptile had an estimated wingspan of more than 8 feet, similar to that of an albatross, the museum said.

The fossil was discovered in 2017 by PhD student Amelia Penny during an excursion to the Isle of Skye, in the far north-west of Scotland, when she saw the jaw of a pterosaur protruding from rocks. It will now be added to the museum’s collection.

“Pterosaurs preserved with this quality are extremely rare and are often reserved for selected rock formations in Brazil and China. However, a huge well-preserved pterosaur emerged from a tidal platform in Scotland,” said Natalia. Jagielska, a doctoral student at the University of Edinburgh, is the author of a new scientific paper describing the finding.

Steve Brusatte, a professor of paleontology at the University of Edinburgh, said the discovery was the best found in Britain since the early 1800s, when the famous fossil hunter Mary Anning discovered many important Jurassic fossils on the coast. south of England.

He said the fossil had “light” bones, “as thin as sheets of paper,” and it took several days to cut it off the rock with diamond-tipped saws while his team battled tidal invasions.

“It tells us that pterosaurs got bigger much earlier than we thought, long before the Cretaceous period when they competed with birds, and that’s very significant,” Brusatte added.

The pterosaur has been given the Gaelic name Dearc sgiathanach, which translates as “winged reptile”. The name also refers to the Isle of Skye, whose Gaelic name means “winged island”, said the National Museum of Scotland.

The discovery is described in a new article published in Current Biology.

Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to fly, about 50 million years before birds. They lived until the Triassic period, about 230 million years ago. They were previously thought to be much smaller during the Jurassic period.

The announcement of the discovery in Scotland comes just weeks after paleontologists said they had discovered the fossilized remains of a giant. Jurassic “sea dragon” in the United Kingdom. The fossil, which researchers said was “very well preserved,” was said to be the “paleontological discovery of a lifetime.”

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