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[00:00.18] This flying reptile soared over the heads of dinosaurs when Scotland was part of a sub-tropical island in the Middle Jurassic period.

[00:08.14] Scientists found its wings, shoulders, leg and backbone embedded in limestone rock on a beach.

[00:14.28] Only the skull was missing.

[00:15.88] To protect it, the fragile fossil was transported from Skye in the researchers' backpacks.

[00:21.20] This creature is called Ceoptera meaning mist in Scottish Gaelic.

[00:25.18] Fossils from this era are extremely rare, and the discovery changes what's known about the flying reptiles.

[00:31.82] Experts now believe they lived much earlier and had a global distribution.

[00:36.07] It had been thought that they mostly lived in China.

[00:39.26] The fossil was found in 2006, but it took years of painstaking work to extract it from the hard rock for classification.