New Dinosaur Species Named After 'Ghostbusters' Monster Zuul
Paleontologists have unearthed the fossils of a new dinosaur with a spooky resemblance to the ugly demigod Zuul of 1984 movie “Ghostbusters”.
The group of scientists from Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Canada found the fossils in the northern Montana badlands. It was discovered while scientists were digging up another dinosaur and a bulldozer apparently encountered the Zuul’s tail.
They described Zuul’s fossils as a four-legged and plant-eating dinosaur. It is 20 feet long and weighed 2.5 tons. It has large horns on its head and smaller spikes on its face. Zuul’s long and spiked tail is about 10 feet long, which has a massive knob of bone at the tip that became an intimidating defensive weapon for enemies. It is believed that the dinosaur has lived some 75 million years ago.
Zuul belongs to a group of Cretaceous Period dinosaurs called ankylosaurs. Ankylosaurs were among the most heavily armored land animals ever with cladding in bony armor from the snout to the end of the tail. Most of the time, it has spikes and a tail club, which was used to smash the legs of predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex cousin Gorgosaurus that lived alongside Zuul.
The skeleton of Zuul was nearly complete and best-preserved when it was excavated in 2014. According to Victoria Arbour, a Ph.D. fellow at the ROM and University of Toronto, finding a full dinosaur skeleton is a rare feat especially uncommon for this group of dinosaurs.
As for the name of the dinosaur, Royal Ontario Museum paleontologist David Evans said that it was inspired by its skull similarities to the head of the “Ghostbusters” monster Zuul.
“We're so honored that the Royal Ontario Museum would accord the name of this magnificent creature with the appellation that we called our 'terror dog' in the movie, and that is Zuul, Z-U-U-L,” said Dan Aykroyd, the Ontario-born "Ghostbusters" star and co-writer.
Moreover, Zuul’s fossil has rare soft tissue skin impressions and keratinous sheaths on the tail spikes.