The remains of a "very weird" ankylosaur that had a deadly armored tail have been found in subantarctic Chile.
The tail of the animal is so flat that it would have looked like a sword, according to the study's co-lead researcher. It would have looked like an Aztec club.
The dinosaur's remains reveal a previously unknown tale about ankylosaur evolution, which was caused by the breaking apart of the supercontinent Pangaea.
The study was published in the journal Nature.
Zuul was named after an armored dinosaur from Ghostbusters.
The rocks were found in February of last year. The well-preserved skeleton was about 80 percent complete, and it was weird because the bones were in order from the waist down.
The animal's skeleton was found to be 80%. Francisco Hueichaleo.
The bottom half of the beast is very well preserved because it died by a river.
The team had only five days left in the field season to dig, and that led to a lengthy effort involving a broken rib, a damaged ankle, and near-hypothermia among the crew.
The team from the largely chilean country has an exquisite specimen of a roughly 6.5-foot-long (2 meters) ankylosaur with a tail that looks like a fern frond.
The Greek words for "tail" and "roof" are related to the mythology of an armored beast.
The large head with a narrow, curved beak is not common for ankylosaurs. It has rounded, hoof-like claws on both hands and feet.
The ankylosaur has a wide and stegosaur-like pelvis. He said that if you only had the pelvis, you would think you had the first Stegosaurus. The Stegosaurus lived during the dinosaur period.
The man is Sergio Soto.
Paleontologist Sergio Soto is looking at the remains.
The shortest tail of any armored dinosaur is that of S. elengassen. It's made of large and flattened osteoderms. The first two pairs are near the body, and the next five pairs are fused together as a powerful weapon. Other ankylosaurs have clubs on their tails.
It wasn't clear if Laurasian ankylosaurs had traveled south to populate Gondwana.
The first complete study of ankylosaur from the Southern Hemisphere shows that it and two other Southern Hemisphere ankylosaurs are missing. These must have split off before the mid-Jurassic, which is very ancient roots.
There are images of a new dinosaur from Venezuela.
It's exciting to find a dinosaur with a tail.
"We all know the tail clubs, but this is a new kind of tail weapon that evolved from the Southern Hemisphere," he said.
"It's just exceptional material and a really unexpected dinosaur," said Matt Lamanna, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.
There are related content.
The dinosaur had armor and spikes.
There is a sphinx-headed dinosaur found in Utah.
The Stegosaurus skeleton is very close to complete.
The article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.
