Scottish Dinosaurs
This major research project has been funded by Scottish Natural Heritage, the Ferguson Bequest, personal donations and The Hunterian. It has continued since the discovery of the first dinosaur bone remains on the Isle of Skye in 1992. The work has resulted in numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications as well as more popular articles. The world’s smallest dinosaur footprint, discovered in 2006, featured in Guinness World Records. Although most of the research has been centred on the study of the hundreds of dinosaur footprints discovered on Skye, there have been the bones and teeth from at least four different types of dinosaur. This research still continues with discoveries being made on a regular basis. As a result of the work on Skye, strong links have been made with the Staffin Museum, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Bighorn Basin Geoscience Center (Wyoming) and the Smithsonian Institute (Washington DC). The dinosaur research has also involved some comparative study between Middle Jurassic dinosaur footprints from Wyoming and the footprints from Skye. This study has expanded to place Scotland in a global context, as Middle Jurassic dinosaur localities are rare, making Scotland crucial to our understanding of the development of dinosaurs at the time the Atlantic Ocean was beginning to open.
Image 1. The world's smallest dinosaur footprint
Image 2. A three dimensional contoured representation of a Middle Jurassic (170 million years old) dinosaur footprint from the Isle of Skye