Paleontology nerd here. There isn't an official term for the tail spikes, but thagomizer is pretty much an unoffcial official term.
I mean... if you don't have an official term for it, but basically everyone in your field calls it a thagomizer, does that not make thagomizer the official term? If not, what makes a term "official"?
Well, whats the official term? If its just tail spikes I will be very disappointed
I just got the notification for this, sorry. There isn't a real official term other than tail spikes, but iirc thagomizer has been used in literature, such as this paper describing a new specimen of a stegosaur from Portugal and its impacts on the taxonomy of stegosaurs
For anyone who was also wondering how accurate this is. Pretty accurate.
Nothing has ever made more sense. Wander around a college science department during his heyday and they basically wallpapered the place in The Far Side.
The Far Side is still my favorite comic. I think we need to continue the wallpapering.
RIP Thag
F for thag
Wasn't sure about this, felt like an online myth, so checked it out on Wikipedia. Seems legit. On a related note, found quite the rabbit hole on that article:
Other scientific terms first used in fiction:
- Boojum tree
- Crash bandicoot
- Flange as the collective noun for baboons
- Horrendous Space Kablooie
- Quark
- Shmoo
- Snark
- Sonic
- Waldo
they names something after the Ferengi Bartender on DS9?
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/quark
The name 'quark' has its origin in James Joyce's book 'Finnegans Wake'
I adore hearing stories about the mutual fandom - of eachother - between Gary Larson and the scientific community.
This made me less angry. Now someone should come up with a fitting name for the set of plates.
Surely those have a name!
I remember that comic from back in the day. Love knowing the term became adapted by paleontologists!
