In 1982, the comic strip The Far Side jokingly referred to the set of spikes on a Stegosaurus’s tail as a “thagomizer”. A paleontologist who read the comic realized there wasn’t any official name for the spikes and began using the new word; Thagomizer is now the generally accepted term.
Thagomizer Thagomizer on mounted Stegosaurus tail A thagomizer is the distinctive arrangement of four to ten spikes on the tails of stegosaurid dinosaurs. These spikes are believed to have been a defensive measure against predators. The arrangement of spikes originally had no distinct name; the term Thagomizer was coined in 1982 by cartoonist Gary Larson […]
