A Jurassic dinosaur fossil that was first spotted more than 50 years ago has been extracted from the base of a cliff on Skye and formally identified.
The fossil was discovered near to Elgol in 1973 and is Scotland’s earliest recorded dinosaur find.
National Museums Scotland (NMS) said it remained uncollected until a team led by Dr Elsa Panciroli returned in 2018.
Known as the Elgol dinosaur, the fossil is preserved in fragments, but experts have identified part of the spine, ribs and hipbones – making it the most complete dinosaur skeleton found to date in Scotland.
Bone analysis has led researchers to believe it is an ornithopod dinosaur, a group which includes notable later dinosaurs such as Iguanodon, Parasaurolophus and Edmontosaurus.
It is believed to date from around 166 million years ago, in the Middle Jurassic, making it one of the oldest known ornithopod body fossils, from a group of dinosaurs that became far more prominent in the later Cretaceous period.
Dr Elsa Panciroli with the Elgol dinosaur fossil. Pic: NMS/Neil Hanna
Dinosaur finds are rare in Scotland and much of the rock that is exposed at the surface across the country is not from the period when the animals ruled the earth – the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, jointly known as the Mesozoic era. Dinosaur finds are more common in southern England where more of the exposed rock is geologically newer.
Analysis of the bone structure indicates the Elgol dinosaur, which would have been roughly the size of a pony, was at least eight years old.
The new description of the dinosaur is published in the Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Lead author Dr Panciroli, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)…
