Ancient Stegosaurus relatives wandered across the Scottish highlands
The Isle of Skye was once more like the Isle of Dinosaurs. (Jon Hoad./)When you think about Scotland, the first images that pop into your mind are probably of gorgeous cliffs and men in kilts. But rewind a few million years, and Scotland was hardly the place we know it as today. Its inhabitants were wildly different as well.The Isle of Skye, for example, is one of the most picturesque spots in the modern Scottish Highlands, but it’s also home to a diverse array of tracks and fossils from middle-Jurassic creatures. A new paper published in PLOS One this week shows that among these ancient Scottish inhabitants is possibly an early cousin of a dinosaur fan favorite.A team led by paleontologists Paige DePolo and Stephen Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, discovered new tracks back in 2017. One revealed an entirely new type of Scottish dinosaur: a plate-backed stegosaur.“Stegosaurs...