Zuul
Name: Zuul
(named after the character from the film Ghostbusters
(1984)).
Phonetic: Zuhl.
Named By: V. M. Arbour & D. C.
Evans - 2017.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ankylosauridae, Ankylosaurini.
Species: Z. crurivastator
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Skull 50 centimetres long. Total body
length roughly about 6 meters long.
Known locations: USA, Montana - Judith River
Formation.
Time period: Late Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Skull and almost complete
skeleton.
At
the time of the description in 2017, Zuul was
the best preserved
ankylosaurine ankylosaur
ever found in North America. Not only was
the skull and post cranial skeleton mostly complete, many of the
armoured plates that adorned its back were still present.
The
type species name, Z. crurivastator, is Latin
and basically means
the ‘destroyer of shins’. This is a reference to how ankylosaurid
dinosaurs are thought to have defended themselves by using their
tail clubs to hit the legs of attacking dinosaurs. The genus name
Zuul is a reference to the character that appeared
in the 1984 film
Ghostbusers.
Further reading
- A new ankylosaurine dinosaur from the Judith River Formation of
Montana, USA, based on an exceptional skeleton with soft tissue
preservation. - Royal Society Open Science 4(161086). -
V. M. Arbour & D. C. Evans - 2017.
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