Dinosaur relics dating back 165 million years have been given protected legal status after fossil hunters kept digging them up and damaging the bones.

The Isle of Skye is considered the 'dinosaur capital of Scotland' due to its Jurassic heritage sites, and fossils displayed in the Staffin Museum.

But in recent years conservationists say the remains have become damaged by collectors.

It is hoped the Nature Conservation Order (NCO), signed today by Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment, Mairi Gougeon, will prevent that from happening again on Skye.

In the past, important fossil discoveries have been broken by hammering, with specimens taken from the island and moved to private collections.

The order will try to prevent rare vertebrate fossils from being removal from Skye's globally important fossil sites.

The Middle Jurassic fossils include some of the first evidence of dinosaur parenting.

Housed at Staffin Museum, a rock slab shows the footprints of baby dinosaurs, together with the print of an adult.