stego time line, thagomizer

[Mike Bonham <bonham@jade.ab.ca>]

BPC.APA@email.apa.org (Considine, Blaise) wrote:
> Regarding said plates and spikes (don't flame me, I've deleted all my old 
> messages), I don't remember wjhether it's been settled whether the plates 
> occurred in parallel rows or a single row, but if they were in a row, 
> wouldn't it be likely that the spikes (and where does "thagomizer" come 
> from?) would be arranged in the same fashion?

In one of Larson's `Far Side' cartoons, a lecturer is giving a
military-style pre-briefing session to a group of cave men,
using a huge picture of a stegosaur.  Pointing with his rod to the
spiked tail, he says, "And this end we call the Thag-o-mizer,
in honor of the late Thag Simmons".

I think this classic cartoon has been picked up by (some subset of) the
paleontology community, and the word thagomizer semi-officially refers
to the grouping of 4 or 6 spikes at the tail of a Stegosaurus.
does anyone know if `thagomizer' been used as a specific term in a
refereed paper?  Conference lecture?
----
Mike Bonham        bonham@jade.ab.ca      Jade Simulations International
``So, here I am, sitting by myself, talking to myself.  Now THAT's chaos!''
                (mathematician Ian Malcolm, in Spielberg's Jurassic Park)