A rare fossil of a 170 million-year-old pterosaur with an 8-foot wingspan is found

Natalia Jagielska poses for a photo with the world's largest pterosaur unearthed on the Isle of Skye. Jagielska is the author of a new paper.

Stewart Attwood/National Museums Scotland via AP

Scientists said Tuesday that a 170 million-year-old pterosaur fossil has been found on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

The National Museum of Scotland said the fossil of the pterosaur is the largest of its kind ever found. The museum said that the reptile had an estimated wingspan of more than 2.5 meters, similar to that of an albatross.

AmeliaPenny, a student at the University of Edinburgh, discovered the fossil during a field trip on the Isle of Skye in remote northwestern Scotland. It will be added to the collection.

Dinosaurs that are preserved in such high quality are very rare and are usually only found in Brazil and China. Natalia Jagielska, a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, is the author of a new scientific paper about the discovery of an enormous superbly preserved pterosaur.

Steve Brusatte, a professor of paleontology at Edinburgh University, said that the discovery was the best one in Britain since the early 1800s.

It took several days to cut the fossil from the rock using diamond-tipped saws as his team battled against encroaching tides.

It tells us that pterosaurs got larger earlier than we thought, long before the Cretaceous period when they were competing with birds.

The Gaelic name for the pterosaur is Dearc sgiathanach.

50 million years before birds, terosaurs were the first to fly. They lived as far back as 230 million years ago. They were thought to have been smaller during the period.