Zuul
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| Name Meaning | “Zuul” |
| Location | United States (Montana) |
| Time Period | c. 75 million years ago (Late Cretaceous) |
| Length | 20 ft (6 m) |
| Weight | 2.5 tons (2,300 kg) |
| Locomotion | Quadruped |
| Diet | Herbivore |
| Described | 2017 (Arbour & Evans) |
| Geological Formation(s) | Judith River |
| Valid Species | Zuul crurivastator (type) |
Phylogeny: Dinosauria > Ornithischia > Genasauria > Thyreophora > Thyreophoroidea > Eurypoda > Ankylosauria > Euankylosauria > Ankylosauridae > Ankylosaurinae
Overview: Only one fossil specimen of this armored dinosaur has been found and described, but as said specimen consists of a basically complete skeleton, that’s more than enough to work with. Its individual bones are extremely well preserved, but so too are some of its soft tissue, suggesting the body was dried out and desiccated prior to being buried and fossilized. The scutes that comprised its armor were found articulated in their actual life positions, with some of them bearing traces of the keratinous sheathes that would’ve encased them. Indeed, among the ankylosaurid specimens found in North America, this single holotype is probably the best preserved. It was found in what is today the state of Montana, in the mid-2010’s. Recognized as being the skeleton of a new genus in the family Ankylosauridae, it was used to establish Zuul as a new taxon. Zuul takes its name from a demon of the same name in the film Ghostbusters, which had a head similar to an ankylosaurid.
With a length of about six meters, Zuul was a decently large ankylosaur, being within the same size range as ankylosaurids like Scolosaurus and Euoplocephalus (Zuul was initially mistaken for being a specimen of the latter genus). Like said genera, Zuul was a member of the ankylosaurine subfamily, so it was closely related to Ankylosaurus itself. As with all ankylosaurids, most of its body and head was covered in dermal armor, formed out of numerous osteoderms of various sizes and shapes. In some places, they were tiny and rounded, while others were larger and spine-like. At the end of the tail was a mass of bone forming a club, likely used to defend itself or to ward off competition of its own species. Being known from the Judith River Formation, Zuul is known to have coexisted with a number of large predators like Daspletosaurus and Gorgosaurus. Contemporary herbivores may’ve included hadrosaurids like Brachylophosaurus and the ceratopsid Spiclypeus.