harry potter science 2 dracorex

Harry Potter Science # 2: Dracorex hogwartsia

For the second installation of the Harry Potter Science series (read

part 1 here), I've got dragon info:

Last year one of the most infamous personalities in paleontology

today, Bob Bakker, published a paper announcing a new species of

pachycephalosaur: Dracorex hogwartsia. The specimen is housed in the

Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and Bakker noted its resemblance to

mythical dragons and took that into account when deciding on the

nomenclature. Draco means dragon (which explains a lot about the

personality of everyone's favorite magical brat, Draco Malfoy), and

rex means king....and the second par, "hogwartsia", is a hat-tip to

Rowlings and all of her fans.

(Just as a nit-picky note on nomenclature, the name Dracorex

hogwartsia does not imply that this species was/is actually found at

Hogwarts, since the proper suffix to indicate an animal is named after

its place of discovery is either -ensis or -iensis.)

Despite being tagged the "dragon king," D. hogwartsia was an

herbivore. It was not your average sedentary cud-chewer, however:

there is evidence that pachycephalosaurs engaged in vigorous

competition for mates (thus the fancy headgear). Their vertebrae are

adapted to sustain high impacts and strenous twisting to protect their

spines from these impacts.

The specimen is about 66 million years old, putting these "dragons" in

the late Cretaceous. It is an interesting creature because it has a

flat, spiky head, unlike the dome-shaped skulls of other

pachycephalosaurs.

Here were Rowling's comments on having a dinosaur named after her

creation:

"The naming of Dracorex hogwartsia is easily the most unexpected

honour 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.

I happen to know more on the subject of paleontology than many might

credit, because my eldest daughter was Utahraptor-obsessed and I am

now living with a passionate Tyrannosaurus rex-lover, aged three.

My credibility has soared within my science-loving family, and I am

very much looking forward to reading Dr. Bakker's paper describing

'my' dinosaur, which I can't help visualising as a slightly less

pyromaniac Hungarian Horntail."