A new species of marine reptile that lived about 170 million years ago has been identified from fossils found on the Isle of Skye.
Measuring 14ft (4.2m) from snout to tail, it hunted fish and other reptiles in warm shallow seas around Scotland during the Jurassic Period.
Palaeontologists said they had given it a Gaelic name, Dearcmhara, to reflect its connection with the Hebrides.
Work to identify it was led by the University of Edinburgh and museums.
A team of paleontologists studied fossil fragments of skulls, teeth, vertebrae and an upper arm bone unearthed on Skye over the past 50 years.
They identified several examples of extinct aquatic animals - known as ichthyosaurs - which lived during the Early to Middle Jurassic, including the entirely new species.
During the Jurassic Period, much of Skye was under water and today is one of the few places in the world where fossils from the Middle Jurassic Period can be found.
Other important fossil finds have been made on the Misty Isle.
In 2008, scientists revealed that the earliest turtles known to live in water had been discovered on the island.
The 164 million-year-old reptile fossils were found on a beach at Cladach a'Ghlinne, on the Strathaird peninsula in southern Skye.
The new species formed a missing link between ancient terrestrial turtles and their modern, aquatic descendants.
The fossils include more than 100 marks left by a lizard called Isochirotherium - also known as the hand-beast - 270 million years ago.