Stephen L Brusatte

N. D. L. Clark, Tom J Challands, Jeff Liston, Nicholas Fraser, V Fischer, Mark T Young, Colin C J MacFadyen, Dougald A Ross, Stig Walsch, Mark Wilkinson

Academic paper

Scottish Journal of Geology

Fossils of Mesozoic vertebrates are rare in Scotland, particularly specimens of marine reptiles such as plesiosaursand ichthyosaurs. We describe a suite of ichthyosaur fossils from the Early to Middle Jurassic of Skye, which to our knowledgeare the first ichthyosaurs from Scotland to be described and figured in detail. These fossils span approximately 30 millionyears, from the Sinemurian to the Bathonian, and indicate that ichthyosaurs were a major component of Scottish marinefaunas during this time. The specimens include isolated teeth that could represent the most northerly known occurrences ofthe widespread Sinemurian species Ichthyosaurus communis, a characteristic component of the famous Lyme Regis faunasof England, suggesting that such faunas were also present in Scotland during the Early Jurassic. An associated humerus andvertebrae from Toarcian�Bajocian-aged deposits are named as a new genus and species of basal neoichthyosaurian, Dearcmharashawcrossi. The taxonomic affinities of this taxon, which comes from a critical but poorly sampled interval in the fossilrecord, suggest that non-ophthalmosaurid neoichthyosaurians dominated European assemblages around the Early�MiddleJurassic boundary, and were later replaced by ophthalmosaurids, whose radiation likely took place outside Europe. Many ofthese specimens were collected by amateurs and donated to museum collections, a co-operative relationship essential to thepreservation of Scotland�s fossil heritage.

English