Dearcmhara

Dearcmhara is known from only a few bones: a humerus (upper arm bone) and three vertebrae (back bones).1

Its name comes from Scottish Gaelic and means 'marine lizard'.1

Dearcmhara lived about 184 to 169 million years ago, during the Early to Middle Jurassic.2

It was a basal neoichthyosaurian, meaning it was an early relative of later ichthyosaurs like Ophthalmosaurus.1

The fossils were collected by a man named Brian Shawcross in 1959, and he donated them to a museum instead of keeping them.1

Dearcmhara is one of the first ichthyosaurs from Scotland to be described in detail by scientists.1

Its humerus has a unique deep concavity and a large triangular process that help scientists tell it apart from other ichthyosaurs.1