sciencesoup:

Dracorex Hogswartsis: The Dragon King of Hogwarts

3.6 metres long, covered in spikes, with a long snout and a horned, demonic-looking skull… If you’re looking for a real dragon, the Dracorex Hogswartsis is about as close as you’re going to get. In 2004, a partial skull and four cervical vertebrae were discovered in South Dakota’s Hell Creek formation, and it was immediately recognised as a new addition to the paleontological record. It’s thought to belong to the plant-eating dome-headed Pachycephalosaur family, and yet the specimen is flat-headed. Classification is difficult because many Pachycephalosaurs only develop their head features as they mature, and so this might just be a juvenile, but it could also suggest that the dinosaur family tree was still evolving even towards the end of their era—the Dracorex hogwartsia roamed North America in the Late Cretaceous Period, 100–65 million years ago. The specimen was donated to the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, where it was named Dracorex hogwartsia, meaning ‘Dragon King of Hogwarts’. “Dinosaurs are wonderful for getting kids to explore with their minds…and that’s where Ms. Rowling excels too,” says Dr. Bakker, curator of the Houston Museum of Natural Science. “Her books invite the reader to probe mysteries, solve riddles and learn the craft of fighting ignorance and evil.” In response, J.K. Rowling stated: “I am absolutely thrilled to think that Hogwarts has made a small claw mark upon the fascinating world of dinosaurs…I can’t help visualizing [the Dracorex] as a slightly less pyromaniac Hungarian Horntail.”