Paleontologists know that the joys of working in their field don’t end with the ticker-tape parade that follows every single new discovery (we’re just guessing on that last part). Those scientists usually get the delightful yet totally prestigious duty of naming the newly unearthed set of fossils, so long as they’re part of entirely new species. Some of these researchers also happen to be music geeks, and assign designations accordingly, while others are movie buffs who enjoy a good Ghostbusters reference. According to CBC News, scientists at the Royal Ontario Museum fall into the latter category, having just dubbed a newly-discovered type of ankylosaur the “Zuul crurivastator,” after the Gatekeeper of Gozer. The skull of this new ankylosaur—which was a type of armored dinosaur—resembles Zuul in its Terror Dog form, hence the name. “Crurivastator,” meanwhile, translates to “destroyer of shins,” which would be cool enough on its own.
[via io9, which, like The A.V. Club, is owned by Univision Communications.]