New dinosaur resurrects a demon from Ghostbusters
Found in Montana, the skeleton is the most complete ankylosaur unearthed to date
DEMON DINO An armored dinosaur’s skull suggests that its face resembled that of a demon in Ghostbusters, so the researchers named it Zuul crurivastator. But the dino (ilustrated) was a plant eater, not a predator.
DANIELLE DUFAULT/© ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM
Zuul is back. But don’t bother calling the Ghostbusters. Zuul crurivastator is a dino, not a demon. A 75-million-year-old skeleton unearthed in Montana in 2014 reveals a tanklike dinosaur with a spiked club tail and a face that probably looked a lot like its cinematic namesake.
The find is the most complete fossil of an ankylosaur, a type of armored dinosaur, found in North America, researchers report May 10 in Royal Society Open Science. It includes a complete skull and tail club, plus some preserved soft tissue, says study co-author Victoria Arbour, a paleobiologist at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. “It really gives us a good idea of what these animals looked like.”
The bones reveal that Z. crurivastator had spikes running all the way down its tail, not just on the club itself. That arrangement means the
