AFRICA: A giant prehistoric reptile that patrolled the waters off Scotland 170 million years ago has been identified by scientists, they said on Monday.
The creature, which resembled a menacing dolphin and grew up to four metres long, was identified by fossils from the Isle of Skye in northwest Scotland.
A team of palaeontologists, led by Edinburgh University scientists, studied fossil fragments of skulls, teeth, vertebrae and an upper arm bone unearthed on the island over the past 50 years.
They identified several examples of extinct aquatic animals – known as ichthyosaurs – which lived during the early to middle Jurassic period, including the entirely new species.
Scientists named the species Dearcmhara shawcrossi in honour of Brian Shawcross, an amateur fossil collector who gathered many of the fossils in 1959.
These were later donated to a museum, allowing scientists to study them and identify the new species.
“During the time of dinosaurs, the waters of Scotland were prowled by big reptiles the size of motor boats,” said Steve Brusatte of Edinburgh University’s School of GeoSciences.
“Their fossils are very rare and only now, for the first time, we’ve found a new species that was uniquely Scottish.”
Scotland’s most famous reptile, real or imaginary, is the Loch Ness monster, the myth of which draws thousands of visitors a year to Loch Ness in northern Scotland
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