Fossil of flying reptile from Middle Jurassic Period discovered
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London: A team of scientists have unearthed from a Scottish island the fossil of a unique species of flying reptile dating back to the Middle Jurassic period, BBC reported.
The wings, shoulders, legs, and backbone of Pterosaur, named Ceoptera, were found in a rock on the Isle of Skye located just off the northwest coast of mainland Scotland.
Scientists from the Natural History Museum, University of Bristol, University of Leicester, and the University of Liverpool believe that the beast must have lived some 168-166 million years ago.
The study titled 'A new pterosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Skye, Scotland and the early diversification of flying reptiles’ appeared in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
The creature might have had a wing span of around 1m to 1.5m, according to the study.
One of the researchers, Dr Liz Martin-Silverstonev who made a 3D digital model of the fossil, said finding a fossil from the Middle Jurassic era is ‘extremely rare’.
‘Finding anything from that period that's more than just a single bone is exciting,’ she was quoted as saying.
Dr Martin-Silverstone told Newsweek that during this Middle Jurassic period pterosaurs were in transition from the earlier ‘long-tailed, small-bodied forms to the larger short-tailed forms that dominated the skies of the Cretaceous’ period.
Dr Martin-Silverstone underlined that very few fossils from this period are available to understand how this transition came about.
Professor Paul Barrett, who is senior author on the paper and Merit Researcher at the Natural History Museum, said ‘Ceoptera helps to narrow down the timing of several major events in the evolution of flying reptiles’.
Adding further, Paul Barrett said: ‘Its appearance in the Middle Jurassic of the U.K. 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 almost worldwide distribution.’