Trivia

Hard

Which Cartoonist Coined The Name For Stegosaurus Tail Spikes?

Gary Larson
Bill Ward
Bill Watterson
Charles Schultz
The comic that was the source of the term thagomizer.
Gary Larson

Answer: Gary Larson

Gary Larson, the beloved cartoonist behind the quirky single-panel comic The Far Side, is, to this day, popular in geeky and scientific circles. So popular in fact, that jokes and references from his collections often work their way into scientific lingo and discourse.

One example of this trend comes from a 1982 panel that he penned wherein a caveman professor is giving a lecture to his caveman pupils about the dangers of a stegosaurus’s tail, explaining, “Now this end is called the Thagomizer after the late Thag Simmons.” The term was picked up by Ken Carpenter, a paleontologist working at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, who used the term when describing a fossil at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting in 1993.

Since then, it has taken hold as the informal but most widely used name for the spikes on a stegosaurus’s tail and is used by the Smithsonian Institution, the BBC documentary series Planet Dinosaur, and in other museums and bodies of work—firmly cementing it in the lexicon and immortalizing poor Thag Simmons.

More Trivia Questions

Trivia

Hard

The Largests Nests In The World Are Built By?

Trivia

Easy

Food Allergies Are An Inflammatory Reaction To What Compound In The Food?

Trivia

Easy

The U.S. Election Day Is Always On A Tuesday Because Of?

Trivia

Hard

Which City Is Captured By The Highest Resolution Terrestrial Photograph In The World?

Trivia

Hard

Which Harry Potter Actor Was Told A Vital Piece Of Information About The Series Plot Before Filming The First Film?

Trivia

Hard

Magic Smoke Is A Tongue-In-Cheek Term For Smoke Produced By?

Trivia

Hard

Which Hollywood Action Hero Has A Spider Named After Him?

Trivia

Hard

Who Coined The Term “Robot”?

Trivia

Very Hard

Frankenstein Author Mary Shelley Carried Which Of These Mementos From Her Deceased Husband?

Trivia

Easy

The First Airline Stewardesses Were Required To Be?