Who brought the dog? Scientists name plant-eating dinosaur after Ghostbusters beast

It was more of a leg buster, but scientists have named a spiky, tank-like dinosaur that wielded a sledge-hammer tail after the fanciful beast Zuul from the blockbuster film Ghostbusters that menaced Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and friends.

The scientists on Tuesday described fossils unearthed in the northern Montana badlands of the four-legged, plant-eating dinosaur called Zuul crurivastator that was about six metres long, weighed 2.5 tonnes and lived 75 million years ago.

Zuul belonged to a group of Cretaceous Period dinosaurs called ankylosaurs that were among the most heavily-armoured land animals ever. They were clad in bony armour from the snout to the end of the tail, often with spikes and a tail club that could be used to smash the legs of predators like the Tyrannosaurus rex cousin Gorgosaurus that lived alongside Zuul.

Zuul is one of the most complete and best-preserved ankylosaur ever found, including rare soft tissue, paleontologist Victoria Arbour of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto said. Its fossils included skin impressions and keratinous sheaths on the tail spikes.

In the 1984 film, Zuul (pronounced “zool”) was described as an ancient Near East demigod and appeared as a big, horned, vaguely dog-like monster with glowing red eyes, possessing Sigourney Weaver’s body.

The dinosaur’s name was inspired by its skull similarities to the head of the Ghostbusters monster, Royal Ontario Museum palaeontologist David Evans said.