Dracorex hogwartsia

This specimen, named Dracorex hogwartsia, bears a close resemblance to a fairy tale dragon with a bony head covered in spikes and knobs. This fossil represents a new animal in the group of ornithischian dinosaurs called pachycephalosaurs, or bone-headed dinosaurs. These dinosaurs are known as “thick-headed lizards” because of their heavy, domelike skulls.

 

The name Dracorex hogwartsia comes from the Latin words draco (meaning “dragon”), rex (meaning “king”), and hogwartsia (after the fictional Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry) and was created in honor of the celebrated children’s books by J. K. Rowling.

 

When hearing of this, Rowling commented, “The naming of Dracorex hogwartsia is easily the most unexpected honor to have come my way since the publication of the Harry Potter books! I am absolutely thrilled to think that Hogwarts has made a small (claw?) mark upon the fascinating world of dinosaurs.”

 

This fossil was found by three friends while on a fossil-collecting trip in the Cretaceous rocks of the Hell Creek Formation in Perkins County, South Dakota. One of these men, radiologist Steve Saulsbury, did his residency at the Indiana University School of Medicine and remembered the museum fondly from his time there. This led him to suggest that The Children’s Museum would be the right home for their spectacular specimen.