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New Spiky-Headed Armored Dinosaur Discovered in Utah Was Basically a Tank

posted by mrpg on Sunday July 29 2018, @02:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-tiger dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A new species of spiky-headed dinosaurs has been discovered in Utah, the oldest of its genus ever found in North America. Akainacephalus johnsoni is 75 million years and like its cousin, the Ankylosaurus, had an armored body and an imposing club tail.

The dinosaur's scientific journey began 10 years ago in 2008, when a paleontologist with the Bureau of Land Management found what appeared to be a fossil site at the Kaiparowits Formation of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. A hotbed of prehistoric discovery, the Kaiparowits has been called "dinosaur Shangri La." The National Momument was recently shrunk through an order from President Trump, and some of its former land has now been purchased by a mining company.

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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday July 29 2018, @05:43PM (5 children)

    by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Sunday July 29 2018, @05:43PM (#714414) Journal

    Yep, it's amazing. This dinosaur was basically a tank.

    Except with an "imposing club tail," unlike tanks.

    And it had feet instead of wheels or tracks.

    And instead of people inside, it had a spiky head "like a built-in helmet."

    And it couldn't fire shells.

    And, well, it wasn't really mechanical at all.

    And it was alive.

    Wait -- how was it "basically a tank" again?

    In other news, I'm going to go take a bath now with my rubber ducky, which is "basically a submarine"...

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by tibman on Sunday July 29 2018, @11:41PM (2 children)

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Sunday July 29 2018, @11:41PM (#714505)

    For a gamer the word "tank" refers to it's ability to absorb or repel damage. "That guy is so tanky." "The tank should go in first and take agro."

    I don't think anyone thinks the dino was literally an armored fossil fueled vehicle.

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    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 30 2018, @12:22AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 30 2018, @12:22AM (#714531) Journal

      was literally an armored fossil fueled vehicle

      Pedantic, I know, but except for the 'vehicle' part, it literally shows the traits: it was armored and it eat what today is considered fossils.

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    • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday July 30 2018, @02:16AM

      by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Monday July 30 2018, @02:16AM (#714571) Journal

      Thanks for that. I'm not a gamer, so this is a meaning I'm unfamiliar with. I still think the headline was going for the armored vehicle metaphor given the reference to armor in the opening... But sure, I'll hope they were making a gamer reference.

      (Also, I'm familiar with the more broad non-gamer simile, i.e., "built like a tank." But that's a very different phrase from saying something is "basically a tank.")

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @05:38AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @05:38AM (#714632)

    A pigeon is basically a flying shit tank.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 30 2018, @01:08PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 30 2018, @01:08PM (#714698) Journal
    What exactly are you complaining about? It's armored, roughly the size of a tank (though probably significantly less massive, due to lower density), moves under its own power like a tank, and has a weapon. Analogy is holding for me.