A NEW dinosaur discovery on Skye is proof Scotland has entered a golden age of fossil finds, according to experts in the field. The island is now being hailed as a Jurassic jewel because of its global significance in palaeontology, but the dinosaur finds are by no means the only ones of international importance.
While dinosaurs capture the most attention from the public, they are just one special example of “the most amazing wealth” of fossil discoveries in Scotland that go back over 200 years, according to Nick Fraser, keeper of natural sciences at National Museums Scotland.
The dinosaur finds on Skye by contrast are a fairly new phenomenon but, like other Scottish breakthroughs in the field, they are attracting interest from across the globe.
READ MORE: Stegosaurs roamed on Isle of Skye 170 million years ago, study finds
“Scotland is important because there are very few places in the world where you can find fossils from the middle part of the Jurassic period,” said Dr Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences. “It’s a dark period in dinosaur evolution, so Skye turns out to be one of the few places anywhere on the planet that fills that gap.
“It was a very remarkable period of time when Scotland was part of an island, but a smaller island than today, in the middle of the Atlantic.
"The super continent had just started to break up. You had this lush island perched in the middle of this growing ocean. That was ancient Scotland and dinosaurs were thundering across the land.
“Scotland, and Skye in particular, are unique. We know that a lot was happening in dinosaur evolution and we can tell they were getting bigger and spreading around the world but there are too few fossils to tell the story, so each one of the Scottish fossils is very, very important.”
The latest discovery was of 50 newly identified footprints that helped scientists confirm that stegosaurs – with their distinctive diamond-shaped back plates – roamed there around 170 million years ago.
The site on the island’s north-east coast contains a mixture of footprints and reveals that dinosaurs on Skye were more diverse than previously thought.
READ MORE: Mairi Gougeon signs protection order for 'dinosaur capital' Skye
The team of palaeontologists from the University of Edinburgh (above) discovered a short sequence of distinctive oval footprints and handprints belonging to a stegosaur, left by a young animal or a small-bodied member of the stegosaur family as it ambled across the mudflat.
The discovery means that the site at Brothers’ Point – called Rubha nam Brathairean in Gaelic – is now recognised as one of the oldest-known fossil records of this major dinosaur group found anywhere in the world. Large stegosaurs could grow to almost 30 feet long and weigh more than six tonnes.
Other discoveries on the island have provided scientists with vital clues about the early evolution of major dinosaur groups, including huge long-necked sauropods and fierce meat-eating cousins of tyrannosaurus rex.
“It’s a golden age for dinosaurs in Scotland,” said Brusatte. “It’s really cool to have them, to find new ones and show kids what used to live here. There’s something awesome about that as it is the history, the prehistory, of the country and beyond that ‘wow’ factor these are very important dinosaurs scientifically.”
There is still more to come, according to Brusatte.
“We are working on some pretty cool finds as there is stuff in the lab which we are still taking out of rock and we don’t know what bones they are,” he said. “It’s a very exciting time.”
The University of Edinburgh is now one of the leading centres of palaeontology and geobiology research, not just in the UK, but globally.
“It’s really become a destination for people all over the world to come and study fossils here. We’re very proud of being able to attract some of the best young minds from all over to join us to study fossils,” said Brusatte.
READ MORE: 150 million-year-old 'crocodile fossil' gives insight into evolution
It was actually a PhD student, Paige dePolo, who led the most recent study, and one of the two track sites was discovered by another PhD student.
“He noticed a hole in the rock platform that had three things that looked like toes and that was that,” said Brusatte. “Many of the great discoveries are made by students and that is really neat as well.”
Rachel Wood, professor of carbonate geoscience at the University of Edinburgh, said palaeontology in Scotland had been “reinvigorated”.
She said: “Scotland has the most amazing record of life on the planet … there’s a new generation now working anew on some of these sites, including the Skye dinosaur trackways, and creating new more modern ways of thinking about the evolution of life. It’s pretty massive.”
DINOSAUR WARS
NEW dinosaur discoveries are being made elsewhere in the world, but there is unlikely to be a repeat of the 1800s' Dinosaur Wars of North America, when two palaeontologists raced to make the most finds.
Also known as the Bone Wars and the Great Dinosaur Race, it was a period of ruthlessly competitive and intense fossil hunting, marked by the rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh.
Each used underhanded methods to try to outdo the other including theft, bribery and the destruction of bones. Each sought to ruin the other’s reputation and cut off his funding, using attacks in scientific publications.
Both were financially ruined by their obsession, but made important finds which led to the identification of nearly 140 new species of dinosaur.
However although this is now another period of great discovery it is not a “nasty, hypercompetitive race”, according to Brusatte.
READ MORE: Jurassic Park velociraptor depiction not far off, Edinburgh expert says
“Where there is a race it is because there is a lot of treasure out there and not one little pot of gold,” he said.
“We are now in a phase of palaeontology where many new finds are being made all over the world with a new species of dinosaur named on average every single week.
“That is because more people than ever before are looking. A lot of young people are involved and there is a huge diversity. There’s a lot of young women in the field too now.”
Neil Clark, curator of palaeontology at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, said there was now a spirit of collaboration, not just in Scotland but all over the world.
“I don’t think there is quite the same spirit of competition that there was back in the 1800s as we need to try and collaborate and get the science right,” he said.
A WINDOW INTO THE WORLD’S PAST
A RELATIVELY small country in terms of land area and population, Scotland punches well above its weight when it comes to fossils.
“Scotland has a fantastic geolithic history and it’s very diverse,” said Nick Fraser.
“We have the oldest record of a land based ecosystem at Rhynie, which is 400 million years old and is really well known across the world.
“We also have this period of about 360m years ago when the first vertebrates invaded the land and again what we know comes from Scotland by and large.
“Then when it comes up to the age of the dinosaurs, Skye is a Jurassic jewel where we are seeing things there that are similar to the incredible finds coming out of China. Skye is and will continue to be really well known.
“Skye is just another special example of the amazing wealth of palaeolithic finds in Scotland that go back to the 1800s.
“We have historic figures like Hugh Miller and Charles Lyell, and also James Hutton who is known in America as the father of modern day geology.
READ MORE: Dippy the dinosaur: The fascinating tale behind the diplodocus at Kelvingrove
"And at the moment we have a number of really active people working together such as ourselves with the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow.
“It is a golden age and the museum here has a fantastic collection we should not ignore which has been built up over the last 200 years and contains probably the best collection of fossil fish from 450m to 250m years ago. These fish from Caithness are remarkable finds which are a source of research for people from around the world.”
Scotland is also able to shed light on the Triassic period, that came before the Jurassic, because of finds from Elgin.
This period saw the first dinosaurs but also the first mammals and crocodiles, evidence of which can be seen in the Elgin fossils.
Clark said Scotland was a window into the world’s past.
One of the earliest land-living tetrapods on the planet was found at Dumbarton and is on display at the museum.
Tetrapods were the first fish that developed arms and legs and moved on to the land over 360m years ago and well before the time of the dinosaurs.
Scotland has a long history of amateur fossil hunters that have contributed much to the field.
Much of the research today is based on the finds of Stan Wood, who had no formal training in science but was one of the best fossil hunters Scotland has ever known.
READ MORE: Yale researchers discover acidic seas caused extinction
Scientists are still working on fossils he found in the Borders just before his death in 2012.
“Even before palaeontology was a big thing, back in the 1700s we had David Ure, a Glasgow minister of the church who had an interest in it and we have bits of his collection in the Hunterian,” said Clark.
“He found the first small ostracods, the first small crustaceans which are useful for dating rocks.
“There was also Robert Dick, the baker of Thurso, who collected a lot of fossils and helped Hugh Miller develop his ideas.”
Miller, another self-taught geologist, was the first to study Devonian fish called placoderms.
These fish, among the first jawed animals ever, had heads covered in plates of bone like a helmet. Miller found their fossil remains in Caithness.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here