Jurassic-era winged reptile found on Skye
A NEW species of flying dinosaur has been discovered on the Isle of Skye.
The winged reptile lived between 168 and 166 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic period, and has been named Ceoptera evansae by palaeontologists.
It was first unearthed during a field trip in 2006, when excavations revealed an incomplete skeleton made up of the shoulders, wings, legs and backbone.
Almost two decades of work at Elgol have involved preparing the fossil and making scans of the bones, some of which remain embedded in rock.
Researchers say the specimen belongs to a group of pterosaurs known as Darwinoptera, with many similar dinosaurs found in modernday China.
The Skye individual is rare, the scientists say, and could help shed light on the evolution of pterosaurs.
The study, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, suggests that Darwinoptera may have been more diverse than previously thought, living for more than 25 million years. Prof Paul Barrett, a researcher at the Natural History Museum, said: “Ceoptera helps to narrow down the timing of several major events in the evolution of flying reptiles. Its appearance in the Middle Jurassic of the UK was a complete surprise, as most of its close relatives are from China.
“It shows that the advanced group of flying reptiles to which it belongs appeared earlier than we thought and quickly gained an almost worldwide distribution.”
Ceoptera evansae gets the first part of its name from the Scottish Gaelic word “cheo”, meaning mist or fog, and the Latin word “ptera”, meaning wing.
The second part, “evansae”, honours Prof Susan E Evans, a British palaeontologist, for her years of scientific work, particularly on Skye.