Described as the "discovery of the century", a pterodactyl fossil discovered on the Isle of Skye which dates back more than 170 million years is now on display at the National Museum of Scotland.
Hailed as the best-preserved skeleton of a pterosaur – a huge flying reptile – it's thought to also be the largest ever fossil of the creature discovered from the Jurassic period.
It was discovered during a National Geographic Society-funded excavation on the Isle of Skye in 2017 and has now been added to the museum's permanent collection.
The fossil has been given the Gaelic name Dearc Sgiathanach , which translates as 'winged reptile'.
It was found at Brother's Point, the same stretch headland on Skye's Trotternish peninsula where fossilised dinosaur footprints made around 170 million years ago were discovered.
Better known as pterodactyls, the giant beasts are closely related to the dinosaurs and had an estimated wingspan of more than 2.5 metres, similar to that of an albatross today.
Speaking about the ground-breaking discovery, University of Edinburgh PhD student Natalia Jagielska, who was lead author in a new paper featuring the fossil, described the finding as one of the "best pterosaurs that has been discovered in centuries".
Posing proudly with it for photos, Ms Jagielska said: "The finding has pieced together a huge gap in fossil records for us.
"I am glad that the world is going to see one of the best pterosaurs that has been discovered in centuries.
"Britain hasn't seen this kind of preservation of pterosaurs in 200 years. It's a discovery of the century, this doesn't really happen."
The palaeontology expert said the last time such findings were made was during the days of Mary Anning - a palaeontologist celebrated for her discoveries of Jurassic fossils - in the early 1800s.
Holding a much smaller stuffed toy version of the reptile on her shoulder, Ms Jagielska said the fossil shows that the pterosaur was "much bigger and more diverse than we expected during the Jurassic period."
"They were also very goofy looking creatures," she laughed.
"The discovery is also super interesting because this fossil shows there was clearly a lot of evolution going on in that time period.
"And it shows that Scotland is a key piece to discovering that evolutionary variation, the best place in the world, it might be.
"If these delicate bones of the pterosaur can be preserved well, that means other creatures can, and if other creatures can, we might fill the gap in records of the Jurassic period just in Scotland alone."
Professor Steve Brusatte, a leading palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh, led the 2017 field trip and has been an adviser on the new Jurassic World blockbuster.
He worked with director Colin Trevorrow and designers on the film, which will widely feature pterosaurs and described it as a "superlative Scottish fossil".
He said: "The preservation is amazing, far beyond any pterosaur ever found in Scotland and probably the best British skeleton found since the days of Mary Anning in the early 1800s.
"Dearc is the biggest pterosaur we know from the Jurassic period and that tells us that pterosaurs got larger much earlier than we thought, long before the Cretaceous period when they were competing with birds, and that's hugely significant."
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