Scientist Mary Somerville has been chosen to appear on a new Royal Bank of Scotland £10 note.

More than 400 people got in touch with the bank to nominate a Scottish figure who they felt had made a significant contribution in the field of science and innovation.

Images of Ms Somerville, physicist James Clerk Maxwell and engineer Thomas Telford were the final three in the running to be on the polymer notes, set to be issued in the second half of 2017.

The final decision was to be made in a public vote running on the bank's Facebook page, but concerns over an influx of last-minute votes for Thomas Telford from outside of the UK led RBS to choose Ms Somerville as the winner as she had been the leader in the poll.

Ms Somerville lived from 1780 until 1872 at a time when women's participation in science was strongly discouraged. She was jointly nominated to be the first female member of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1835.

Her writing influenced James Clerk Maxwell and John Couch Adams, who later discovered Neptune. The Jedburgh-born scientist was also, in 1868, one of the signatories to an unsuccessful petition for female suffrage.

Malcolm Buchanan, chair of RBS's Scotland board, said: "Having the opportunity to choose the face of our new £10 notes obviously meant a great deal to a great number of people.

"Any of our final nominees would have been worthy winners and we wanted to make sure that our choice properly reflected the wishes of those who took part.

"Mary Somerville's immense contribution to science and her determination to succeed against all the odds clearly resonate as much today as they did during her lifetime."