They date to a time when Scotland was largely a desert within the supercontinent Pangea.
Dr Foffa and his colleagues worked closely with the Natural History Museum, in London, where much of the Elgin collection is now held, to scan and study seven fragile, sandstone-entombed specimens ofUntil now, it has been difficult to draw useful information from the fossils. But they piqued the palaeontologist's interest because they date to a murky and critical point in the fossil record - about 10 million years before the first fossil pterosaurs.
"The first pterosaurs [we have] in the fossil record are already winged - already adapted for flying - so it's really difficult to understand where that came from," Dr Foffa said. And now, fine anatomical details revealed by the X-ray scans - including the shape of its jaw and upper thigh bone - have allowed the scientists to correctly placeon the pterosaur family tree, revealing the first flying reptiles evolved from small ground-dwelling ancestors that probably ran around on two legs."It was great to be the first person to look at these details," Dr Foffa said.
"It's long been mysterious what type of animals they evolved from and how they took to the air," he told BBC News.as a close pterosaur cousin, we can now reveal that pterosaurs evolved from tiny, fast-running, ground-living animals, which raced around on their toes like a ballerina, that were so humble that you could hold one in your hand."
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The other three Scottish fossils is the three English political parties in Scotland
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