ANCIENT CAT-SIZED REPTILE REBUILT IN EXQUISITE DETAIL
Fossils unearthed in Scotland more than 100 years ago have finally been identified as belonging to relatives of the flying reptiles that ruled the skies in the age of the dinosaurs
Researchers based at National Museums Scotland have identified the early pterosaur ancestor Scleromochlus taylori by making casts of impressions left in sandstone by several specimens of the reptile found in northeast Scotland. They then CT scanned these impressions and recreated the skeletons of the animals using 3D-modelling software.
This enabled them to piece together the fine details of their anatomy and placed them in the family tree of lagerpetids, the closest relatives to pterosaurs.
Scleromochlus was a small, cat-sized animal that lived in what is now Elgin in northeast Scotland, around 235 million years ago.
Although the fossils were first found in the early 20th Century, classifying Scleromochlus proved problematic due to the difficulty in correctly identifying the fine detail in its anatomy.
“It’s exciting to be able to resolve a debate that’s been going on for over a century,” said lead researcher Dr Davide Foffa, a former research associate at National Museums Scotland.
“But it is far more amazing to be able to see and understand an animal which lived 230 million years ago, and its relationship with the first animals ever to have flown.”
