By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR
Published: 14:00 EDT, 2 April 2025 | Updated: 14:00 EDT, 2 April 2025
It's best known for its rugged landscapes, picturesque fishing villages and medieval castles.
But the Isle of Skye used to be a social hotspot for dinosaurs – including Tyrannosaurus rex's ancestors – according to a new study.
Experts have discovered massive meat-eating and plant-eating dinosaurs drank together from the island's shallow freshwater lagoons 167 million years ago.
A team at the University of Edinburgh analysed 131 dinosaur footprints at Prince Charles's Point on the island's Trotternish Peninsula.
The tracks include rarely-seen footprints of carnivorous megalosaurs - cousins and ancestors of T.Rex - alongside those of herbivorous sauropods.
Researchers said the large, circular impressions made by the latter point to a long-necked dinosaur two or three times the size of an elephant, while the megalosaur would have been 'jeep-sized'.
The team said the site provides a 'fascinating insight' into the environmental preferences and behaviours of dinosaurs from the Middle Jurassic period.
Analysis of the multi-directional tracks and walking gaits, they explained, suggest the prehistoric beasts milled around the lagoon's margins, similar to how animals congregate around watering holes today.
An artist's impression of the meat-eating and plant-eating dinosaurs mingling at the site on the Isle of Skye
A pair of megalosaur footsteps seen at the site. These dinosaurs were the older 'cousins' and ancestors of the famous T.Rex
They added that the tracks show that regardless of dominance, the meat-eating therapods and plant-eating sauropods habitually spent time in lagoons, as opposed to exposed, drier mudflats.
Research lead Tone Blakesley said: 'The footprints at Prince Charles's Point provide a fascinating insight into the behaviours and environmental distributions of meat-eating theropods and plant-eating, long-necked sauropods during an important time in their evolution.
'On Skye, these dinosaurs clearly preferred shallowly submerged lagoonal environments over subaerially exposed mudflats.'
The first three footprints at the site were discovered five years ago by a University of Edinburgh student and colleagues during a visit to the shoreline.
Subsequent discoveries of other footprints in the area made it one of the most extensive dinosaur track sites in Scotland, with scientists saying they expect to find more.
The research team studied the tracks by taking thousands of overlapping photographs of the entire site with a drone, before using specialist software to construct 3D models of the footprints via a technique called photogrammetry.
Steve Brusatte, personal chair of palaeontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh, reflected on the fact the remote bay on the Trotternish Peninsula was also where Bonnie Prince Charlie hid in 1746 while on the run from British troops.
'Prince Charles's Point is a place where Scottish history and prehistory blend together,' he said.
Researchers said the large, circular impressions made by the latter point to a long-necked dinosaur two or three times the size of an elephant.
The Isle of Skye, connected to Scotland's northwest coast by bridge, is known for its rugged landscapes, picturesque fishing villages and medieval castles
The terrifying T.Rex is widely regarded as the most famous dinosaur. This is partly because it was the first very large carnivorous dinosaur to be discovered and it was long believed to have been the largest that ever lived (stock image)
'It's astounding to think that when Bonnie Prince Charlie was running for his life, he might have been sprinting in the footsteps of dinosaurs.'
The research, published in PLOS One, was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and National Geographic Society.
Last year, scientists discovered a new species of pterosaur on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
Named Ceoptera evansae, the winged reptile lived between 168 to 166 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic period.
Palaeontologists spotted the fossil remains in 2006 during a field trip to Elgol, on the south-west coast of the island.
Since then, the team have spent years physically preparing the specimen and taking scans of the bones, some of which remain completely embedded in rock.
Despite the skeleton being incomplete – with only parts of the shoulders, wings, legs and backbone remaining – the researchers said it provides key insights into the evolutionary history and diversity of pterosaurs.
### Notable fossilised finds found on the Isle of Wight in recent years
210-pound ammonite
Pictured, an ammonite which has been described as a 'behemoth' and as 'truly titanic'
An enormous fossil weighing almost 210 pounds and measuring around two feet in diameter was found on the Isle of Wight in 2020.
The ammonite was spotted and pried loose of surrounding rock by university students Jack Wonfor, 19, and Theo Vickers, 21.
Ammonites are extinct sea creatures and part of the mollusc family, like sea snails, with Mr Wonfor and Mr Vickers calling their specimen an 'amazing example'.
The 210-pound (96kg) fossil is thought to be around 115 million years old, living during the Cretaceous period.
Iguanodon tail
The fossilised remains of the the dinosaur — believed to be an iguanodon — were found embedded at the base a cliff-face near Brighstone
A fossilised tail from a dinosaur that roamed the world 125million years ago was discovered at the bottom of a crumbling cliff on the Isle of Wight in 2019.
The remains of the the dinosaur — believed to be an iguanodon — were found embedded at the base a cliff-face near Brighstone.
But excavations and attempts to salvage the tail for detailed analysis are currently being thwarted, due to safety risks posed by the crumbling cliff.
It is thought around six vertebrae have been uncovered, and local media reported that the dinosaur died and was exposed to the elements for several months before being buried by a large flash flood.
Footprint uncovered of a 130 million-year-old therapod
A dinosaur footprint, pictured, uncovered on a beach on the Isle of Wight by Storm Ciara belongs to a 130-million-year-old therapod, fossil hunters claim
A dinosaur footprint uncovered on a beach on the Isle of Wight by Storm Ciara belongs to a 130-million-year-old therapod, fossil hunters claim.
The print is thought to have been left by a Neovenator — a carnivore that could reach 25 feet (7.6 m) in length and weigh up to 4,400 pounds (2,000 kg).
The footprint was discovered by the Wight Coast Fossils group at Sandown Bay, on the island's southeastern coast, on February 12, 2020.
Chinese pterodactyl
The fossil of a pterosaur that is commonly found in China and Brazil was found on the Isle of Wight.
The petrified remains of the flying reptile's jawbone was spotted by a dog walker in Sandown Bay, on the island's south-east coast.
The jaw of the specimen — which has been dubbed 'Wightia declivirostris' — lacked teeth and is related to a group of pterosaurs known as the 'tapejarids'.
125million-year-old superpterosaur with 20ft wingspan
With a 20-foot wingspan and weighing a colossal 650lbs, the giant pterosaur cast an imposing figure swooping through the skies of the Jurassic Age.
And 125million years later, the beast's massive size continues to marvel scientists who have discovered the remains of one of the beasts wedged deep into the cliffs of the Isle of Wight.
The Hatzegopteryx fossil has shed new light on this magnificent species which some believe was the biggest flying creature of the period.
Tiny crocodile that roamed Earth 126 million years ago
Pictured, f a 126million-year-old crocodile
A news species of crocodile that lived 126million years ago was discovered after a pair of skull fragments were found three months apart back in 2014.
Two fragments of crocodile fossils were found by two different collectors and led to the discovery of the ancient button-toothed crocodile.
It might have only measured two feet long, but the diminutive crocodile walked with Dinosaurs and had sharp teeth.
Based upon the two fragments, which were pieced together on the Isle of Wight and together measure around 11cm long, the animal is thought to have been around 2ft long from nose to tail.
A piece from the back half of the crocodile’s skull was found on a beach near Sandown on the island by collector Diane Trevarthen.
Crow-sized flying dinosaur that lived 115 million years ago
Pictured, the fossil found by Daisy Morris which belongs to a previously unknown type of pterosaur
A young girl, then just five years old, called Daisy Morris, spotted a fossil on the Isle of Wight in 2008.
Palaeontologists later studied the remains and found it was a previously unknown type of pterosaur.
It was named Vectidraco Daisymorrisae after Daisy was roughly the size of a crow and was a previously unknown type of pterosaur.
The flying reptile is from 115 million years ago in the Lower Cretaceous period.
With a pelvis length of 40 mm, the new animal would have had a total length of 350 mm, and a wingspan of 750 mm, the researchers say.
The pterosaur has now been donated to the Natural History Museum.