By Tim Binnall
Researchers in Scotland unearthed the remains of an enormous flying reptile that is the largest such creature from the Jurassic Period ever found. According to a press release, PhD student Amelia Penny first stumbled upon the remarkable pterosaur back in 2017 when she was fossil hunting on the country's Isle of Skye during a low tide. The conditions allowed for her to see a peculiar anomaly sticking out of a layer of limestone. A subsequent examination by her colleagues led to the determination that it was the skull of a pterosaur and they quickly set about removing the specimen using a diamond-tipped saw before the tides made the ancient creature's remains inaccessible.
After extracting the fossilized pterosaur from the rock, the scientists were able to get a clearer picture of what had been discovered and they were astounded by the nature of the find. Described by researcher Natalia Jagielska as being "superbly preserved," she marveled that the skeleton "remains in almost pristine condition, articulated and almost complete" despite being around 160 million years old. To that end, the PhD student who is studying the fossil noted that "its sharp fish-snatching teeth" still have "a shiny enamel cover as if he were alive mere weeks ago."
Beyond the breathtaking condition of the remains, the creature is of particular interest to researchers by virtue of its prodigious size as it likely boasted a wingspan of around 8 feet, which would make it the largest Jurassic period pterosaur ever found. In a testament to how there is still much to learn about the various giant reptiles which roamed the planet before humans, the discovery was determined to be an entirely new species of pterosaur that has now been given the name Dearc sgiathanach which is something of an amalgamation meaning 'winged reptile from Skye' in Gaelic.