When paleontology and magic meet.
Head of a Dracorex hogwartsia at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. Photo: Ealdgyth/Children’s Museum
If you are a fan of Harry Potter, you might be interested to know that there is a dinosaur named after the famous school of witchcraft and wizardry. Its full name is Dracorex hogwartsia, which means “dragon king of Hogwarts” in Latin. But how did this dinosaur get such a magical name? And what did it look like?
Dracorex was a dinosaur that lived in the late Cretaceous period, about 70 to 65 million years ago, in the woodlands of what is now North America. It belonged to a group of dinosaurs called pachycephalosaurs, or “bone-headed dinosaurs”, which had thick skulls with various bumps and horns. Dracorex was about 12 feet long and weighed about 500 pounds. It was an herbivore, meaning it ate plants.
Dracorex Hogwartsia lived in the late Cretaceous period, about 70 to 65 million years ago, in what is now North America. Image: Nobu Tamura
The first and only fossil of Dracorex was found in 2004, in South Dakota’s Hell Creek formation. It was a partial skull that was remarkably well-preserved and showed many details of the dinosaur’s head. The fossil was donated to the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, which invited visiting kids to name it as a promotional stunt. The kids chose the name Dracorex hogwartsia, inspired by the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. The name was officially announced in 2006, and the fossil is still on display at the museum.
Not everyone agrees that Dracorex is a valid dinosaur species. Some paleontologists think that it is actually a juvenile or a female of another pachycephalosaur species, called Stygimoloch (which means “horned demon from the river of hell” in Greek).
These experts argue that the skull of Dracorex is similar to that of Stygimoloch, but less developed and ornamented. They also suggest that both Dracorex and Stygimoloch are immature stages of yet another pachycephalosaur species, called Pachycephalosaurus (which means “thick-headed lizard” in Greek). They claim that as these dinosaurs grew up, their skulls changed shape and became more elaborate.
Could the Dragon King of Hogwarts be a baby version of Pachycephalosaurus, pictured here? Photo: Keith Schengili-Roberts / Illustration: DataBase Center for Life Science (DBCLS)
This hypothesis is based on the idea that pachycephalosaurs had different skull shapes at different ages and sexes, just like some modern animals do. For example, male deer grow antlers as they mature, and female deer do not.
However, not all paleontologists agree with this idea. Some think that there is enough evidence to support that Dracorex, Stygimoloch, and Pachycephalosaurus are distinct species, and that their skull differences are not due to age or sex. They point out that there are other features of the skull that do not change with growth, such as the number and position of teeth.
Dracorex could be a separate dinosaur species, after all. Photo: Kabacchi
The debate is still ongoing, and more fossils are needed to resolve it. Until then, we can but admire the eerie beauty and mystery of Dracorex hogwartsia, the dragon king of Hogwarts.
