A new species of dinosaur has just been discovered and the team that found it has decided to name it after an iconic monster featured in the original 1984 "Ghostbusters" movie. The Royal Ontario Museum in Canada official announced that the newly-discovered specifies will be named Zuul Crurivastator. The well-preserved fossils of the unique creature were uncovered in the northern Montana badlands.
Armored up
The new dinosaur would have lived roughly around 75 million years ago and is part of the ankylosaurid family of dinosaurs. The family of dinosaurs is uniquely identifiable by their heavily armored bodies, ornate skull horns, and their spiky tail clubs that were used to fend off predators.
The Zuul crurivastator stood around 10 feet long and weighed around 5,500 pounds. The animal was likely a herbivore that fed mainly on the leafy plants of that time period. The species likely went extinct around 66 million years ago during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
A visit from a fan
Dan Aykroyd, who starred in the original films alongside Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis, even visited the museum in Toronto to take a look at the remains of the creature everyone was fussing about. The museum then posted a photo on Twitter of the Ontario-born actor alongside the animal's skull and thanking him for the surprise visit.
Huge thanks to Ghostbusters writer and star Dan Aykroyd for stopping by @ROMtoronto to meet our new #dinosaur Zuul crurivastator! #DinoZuul pic.twitter.com/pmEwGVHxwf
— ROM Palaeontology (@ROMPalaeo) May 10, 2017
Uncanny resemblance
According to Dr.
Victoria Arbour, an expert on armored dinosaurs and the head of the team that announced the findings, the name Zuul crurivastator was actually something they had been saving up for a specimen that would be worthy of it. The name, which translates to "Destroyer of Shins," was given to the new species not only for its resemblance to the mythical monster but also due to its unique bony tail and the shape of its horns.
The animal's tail club was used to smash the legs of predators such as the Tyrannosaurus rex' cousin, the Gorgosaurus, which lived around the same time as the Zuul.
"Ghostbusters" fans will likely be familiar with the Zuul, a creature that first appeared in the original 1984 movie and then reappeared in various other media such as comic books and on a "Ghostbusters" board game.
The Zuul, also known as the "Gatekeeper of Gozer," was a mythical creature and a demigod under Gozer The Destructor. In the movie, Zuul had possessed a New York musician named Dana Barrett, who was played by Sigourney Weaver.
