The discovery of new dinosaurs continues at a steady state. Many of the more recent finds are of dinosaurs that were feathered (which shifts the popular conception of dinosaurs as larger, scaly beasts). However, other types of dinosaurs continue to be discovered. One type are the armored dinosaurs described as anklylosaurids.
A new type of dinosaur within this group has been reported by the Royal Ontario Museum paleontology department. The fossilized remains of the dinosaur were discovered in Montana in 2016. The remains were of one of the most complete and well-preserved specimens ever encountered. Despite the completeness of the remains, the process of assembling the remains, agreeing it is a different species and the naming process take considerably longer.
The official name of the new dinosaur is Zuul crurivastator. The naming was apparently inspired, according to Laboratory Roots, by close physical resemblances to the character Zuul from the original Ghostbusters movie (1984).
The remains have proved to be of great interest, especially the presence of keratin sheaths on the armored plates and the skin impressions on the tail. According to lead researcher, Dr. Victoria Arbour of the University of Torronto, the find is remarkable: “I’ve been working on ankylosaurs for years, and the spikes running all the way down Zuul’s tail were a fantastic surprise to me – like nothing I’ve ever seen in a North American ankylosaur.”
The researcher provides more details in the video below:
The description and naming of the dinosaur has been reported to the journal Royal Society Open Science. The paper is titled “A new ankylosaurine dinosaur from the Judith River Formation of Montana, USA, based on an exceptional skeleton with soft tissue preservation.”
In related dinosaur news, despite its ancestors having feathers the giant dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex most probably had scaly skin. A new theory, from the University of New England, Australia, suggests dinosaur will have lost its feathers because it no longer needed insulation when it reached gigantic proportions.
