Dracorex

Name:

Dracorex (Greek for "dragon king"); pronounced DRAY-co-rex

Habitat:

Woodlands of North America

Historical Period:

Late Cretaceous (70-65 million years ago)

Size and Weight:

About 12 feet long; weight unknown

Diet:

Plants

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Long, thick skull with spiked horns

About Dracorex:

The full name of this pachycephalosaur, or bone-headed dinosaur, is Dracorex hogwartsia (Dragon King of Hogwarts), and as you might have guessed, there's a story behind this. After it was dug up in 2004, the partial skull of this dinosaur was donated to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, which invited visiting kids to name it. (Considering the other possibilities, though, the allusion to the Harry Potter books doesn't seem so bad.)

There's some controversy about Dracorex among paleontologists, some of whom think this is really a species of the very similar-looking Stygimoloch (whose much less child-friendly name means "horned demon from the river of hell.")