PHOTO: Zuul was clad in bony armour from the snout to the end of the tail. (Supplied: Danielle Dufault/Royal Ontario Museum)

Scientists have named a spiky, tank-like dinosaur that wielded a sledge-hammer tail after the fanciful beast Zuul from the blockbuster film Ghostbusters — but it turns out this dinosaur was more of a leg-buster. Fossils of the four-legged, plant-eating dinosaur, called Zuul crurivastator, were unearthed in the US state of Montana. The dinosaur was about six metres long, weighed 2,200 kilograms and lived 75 million years ago. The species name translates to “destroyer of shins” in Latin, a name inspired by the club at the end of the dinosaur’s tail. This article at Scientific American has all the details.

The votes have been counted and the winners are final! The Dog Training Centre of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta, Canada received more than 20,000 onomastic entries for the 13 adorable (and we mean REALLY adorable) German shepherd pups born at the Centre this year. According to the contest rules, the puppies’ names had to begin with the letter “k”.  The winning names are Koda, Kai, Kullu, Kage, Kammo, Kato, Kayla, Kazoo, Kate, Kaos, Kaya, Knight, and Karma. If you would like to see one of the baby photos and shots of the now pre-teen Canine cops, click here.

PHOTO: An artist’s impression of the mythical drop bear. (Wikimedia Commons: Yamavu (own work))

A community in north-western New South Wales is preparing to unveil a street named after an icon of Australian folklore. The “drop bear” is said to be a reclusive animal that shies away from roads and humans — but it is a different story at Upper Moore Creek near Tamworth where a road will be named after the mythical creature.

Tamworth Mayor Col Murray said reaction to the proposal had been positive and overwhelming. “It’s just something that’s attracted a lot of interest from people,” he said. “One of the consistent comments was that we tend to get very staid and very serious and ultraconservative about our road names and street names and things. This was thought to be a great thing to introduce a bit of light-heartedness.”

Once again, the old computer adage rings true: “Garbage in…garbage out!” Researchers have discovered that many of the technological devices we have developed over the years to make our lives easier and more efficient suffer from some of the very same prejudices and biases that their plague their human designers.  For example, according to a CNN report, an internet search for a Black identifying name might be attached to ads that imply that the subject has a criminal record. Want to learn more? You can watch the whole report at the CNN website.

The Social Security Administration officially released its 2016 baby name data, and Star Wars fans are responsible for making Kylo the fastest-growing name in the U.S. According to the data, 238 parents named their sons after the new Star Wars villain last year, although 14,569 opted for Benjamin, some of which presumably could’ve been inspired by Kylo’s real name. The runners up in that category were the equally pop-culture inspired Creed, Benicio, Adonis, Fox, and, shortly thereafter, Zayn.

Image from GlobalSecurity.org

China has renamed six districts along a disputed Himalayan border region with India, in a move seen as “retaliation” for a visit by the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan spiritual leader, 81, had visited Arunachal Pradesh in India’s remote north-east earlier in April. China had said the visit had a “negative impact” on bilateral relations and warned India against “undermining” Beijing’s interests. India has not yet commented on the Chinese announcement, made on Tuesday. Here are the new names: Wo’gyainling, Mila Ri, Qoidêngarbo Ri, Mainquka, Bümo La and Namkapub Ri.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said that the name changes were “a legitimate action by the Chinese government” which “reflect from another side that China’s territorial claim over South Tibet is supported by clear evidence in terms of history, culture and administration.” Lu explained that the names had been “passed on from generation to generation by people who lived there for generations, the Tibetan ethnic and Monpa ethnic groups,” but China had only just now got around to using them as part of an ongoing “second census of names and localities.”

The legend has finally become a reality. German researchers announced this month the discovery of an entirely new sub-species of iguana.  A thorny resident of San Cristóbal, the northeast island the Galapagos archipelago, the real-life creature bears such an uncanny resemblance to the cinematic legend Godzilla that researchers decided to give it the regal name Amblyrhynchus cristatus godzilla. Unlike its nearly invincible namesake, the real-life marine iguana is, like some many other of the world’s animal species, facing extinction.  Hopefully, the magnetic name will help to bring public attention to this species and support to preserve its threatened homeland. The research results were recently published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.