A student in Scotland was walking along the coast of the Isle of Skye during low tide, hoping to find a dinosaur bone. He stumbled upon an unknown flying monster, the largest of the Jurassic period.
While examining the newly exposed rocks along the shore, the student made a “once-in-a-lifetime discovery.” Paleontologists got involved and spent five years racing against the tides, finally “unveiling” this creature to the scientific world for the first time.
The slab containing the fossil – (Photo: Gregory Funston).
This creature is a “queen of the skies” belonging to a group of flying reptiles known as pterosaurs. It has been scientifically named Dearc sgkathanach.
According to Science Alert, this monster had a wingspan of over 2.5 meters and dates back 170 million years, placing it in the Jurassic period. It is the largest pterosaur ever recorded from this era, suggesting that this group of monstrous reptiles could have grown much larger during the Jurassic than previously thought.
The newly revealed monster in a graphic illustration – (Photo: Natalia Jagielska)
Professor Steve Brusatte from the University of Edinburgh, the lead author of the study, stated that pterosaurs were previously thought to have become oversized during the Cretaceous period when they began to compete with early birds. However, this new creature has forced paleontologists to rethink evolutionary history.
The fossil is in exceptionally good condition, nearly pristine, with bones and joints almost complete, and the teeth still retaining their shiny enamel, “as if it had just died yesterday,” according to the authors. CT scans reveal that its brain had a large visual lobe, indicating excellent eyesight. They are believed to have hunted fish and squid for survival.
The specimen will be taken to the National Museum of Scotland for further study.
This research was recently published in the scientific journal Current Biology.
