Not Nessie’s ancestor

Here's a recent discovery of a rather large Jurassic sea predator from Scotland.  Read more about the beastie here.  I'm not a huge fan of ichyosaurs, but since this is the first one from Scotland it's pretty cool.  It's not the largest of the ichyosaurs, but when you stop and think about it, 14' is larger than most cars, aside from those whomping big 70s tuna boats that menaced people back then.

It's called Dearcmhara shawcrossi, after the man who discovered it, but it's pronounced 'jark vara', which is Scottish Gaelic for "marine lizard".  Those Scots have a different word for everything!  Gaelic of any kind always makes me smile, since it has more consonants than you can pronounce, but then only has one or two syllables to actually say, and many of the sounds don't bear any resemblance to the letters.

I love this area of the world, and now it's got it's own prehistoric critter!  And no, everyone knows Nessie is a plesiosaur (my favorite marine reptiles).