Categories: Uncategorized

The Thagomizer

If you’re in your twenties or older, chances are that you’ve seen the Far Side comic shown on the left: the caveman slideshow in which the spikes on the tail of a stegosaurus are identified as the “Thagomizer”, named in memory of an unfortunate caveman named Thag Simmons.

Although I’ve known that The Far Side comics are popular amongs nerds and scientists, I had no idea that the term “Thagomizer” had been adopted by paleontologists as an actual term. But that’s what happened, and now the word has its own Wikipedia entry and is seen mention by the Smithsonian, a book published by Scientific American and New Scientist magazine.

Joey deVilla

Recent Posts

Sunday picdump for November 17, 2024

Here’s a collection of interesting memes, pictures, an cartoons floating around the internet that I…

1 day ago

U.S. post-election post #7: Don’t worry, it’ll trickle down…

Tap to see the source. This is yesterday’s daily New Yorker cartoon, created by Brendan…

6 days ago

U.S. post-election post #6: One key election is still undecided…

C’mon, let it not be Asians this time. Last time was pretty bad. Here’s the…

7 days ago

U.S. post-election post #5: Come bend the arc with me!

Jon Stewart’s right, and we’ve been here before. Where we are now, I’ve been before…

1 week ago

Veteran’s Day, Remembrance Day, and “In Flanders Fields”

Poppies thrive in overturned soil, which is why they bloom in battlefields. I’m in the…

1 week ago

U.S. post-election post #4: We have to be better

In times of high dudgeon, there’s a tendency to throw integrity out the window. One…

1 week ago