Scientists can’t resist diabolical dinosaur name
Beast resembled Zuul from ‘Ghostbusters’
When scientists needed a name for a newfound dinosaur with wicked horns and protruding spikes, they knew exactly who to call.
Researchers christened the discovery Zuul after the uncannily similar monster in the 1984 classic Ghostbusters. After the name popped into her head, “we couldn’t resist,” says Victoria Arbour of Canada’s Royal Ontario Museum.
Like its movie counterpart, Zuul the dinosaur had large horns on its head and smaller spikes on its face. The Cretaceous Zuul was a vegetarian, stuffing down greenery to maintain its 5,500-pound bulk. The celluloid Zuul, on the other hand, served the forces of destruction. Zuul the dinosaur carried superior weaponry: its long, spiked tail with a massive knob of bone at the tip. This “tail club” could have smacked around a tyrannosaur intent on having Zuul for dinner.
The tail club inspired the second part of the animal’s full scientific name: Zuul crurivastator, which means Zuul, Destroyer of Shins.
The animal makes its scientific debut in a study published by Arbour and her museum colleague David Evans in this week’s