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”?
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!
deleted by creator
