"It Looks More Like a Dragon Than a Dinosaur"  

      About ten years ago, three amateur fossil diggers discovered a new type of dinosaur (in palaeontological terms, ten years is considered a new discovery).  They were digging in the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota when they unearthed this new specimen.  This palaeo-critter stands out from other dinosaurs from the same era.  This late Cretaceous herbivore had horned appendages sticking out from its skull and a flatter, elongated head.  Its nostril openings were huge too.  
      Its trio of discoverers were so impressed with these differences that they named the new genus "Dracorex."  "It's a very dragon-like looking dinosaur.", said Dr. Robert Sullivan of the State Museum of Pennsylvania.  (I'd like to know where he saw a dragon, in order to know what one looks like and make the comparison).  Sullivan and dino expert Dr. Robert Bakker studied the fossil and created its official description in 2006.  
      The trio of discoverers donated the fossil to the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  The children of the museum gave this creature its species name "Hogwartsia," news which J.K. Rowling was glad to hear.  Its full official name then is "Dracorex Hogwartsia" which translated means "the dragon King of Hogwarts."  

      The fossil of Dracorex Hoqwartsia on display in the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  

      Bakker and Sullivan are amazed to find this shape for a dinosaur head this late in the history of dinosaurs.  The longer, and flatter heads are found in the early archosaurs during the Triassic, and even the late Permian, but not in the late Cretaceous.  
      Dinosaur heads tended to be shorter and rounder from the Jurassic on.  A few exceptions were Spinosaurus and his smaller kin the Baronyx.  

          Above pictures: Various artist renditions and constructions of Dracorex Hogwartsia. 

     Jack Horner of the University of Berkley has far different thoughts about this fossil.  He and those who work for him believe that the Dracorex is not any new dinosaur.  They postulate that it is a juvenile Pachycephalosaurus.  They theorize that a pachy- starts with a long, flat head, and that they grow into their snouts and grow their boney dome. 
      Personally I think that's a lot of guessing.  He and his crew say this, but have they ever seen evidence of an immature pachy- going through these theoretical changes?  Maybe they have - I don't know - I'm just asking.  I'd like to know how much they say is based on evidence, and how much is postulating  I'm personally more inclined to go along with the views of Sullivan and Bakker.  Bakker is the one who turned the world of dinosaurs on its head.  Although exceptionally unorthodox in his appearance and mannerisms, for several decades has been thinking outside of the box.  He's the one who imaged the inside of skulls, replicated these shapes, and determined how they sounded.  Now everybody does that.  He was the chief proponent of the warm blooded, and the proto-bird theories (based upon fossil evidence and logic), and now these theories are the accepted theories.  
      Horner is an occasional naysayer to the things Bakker or Sullivan say.  I've watched them in some documentaries, including one that included information about both the Pachycephalosaurus, and the Dracorex Hogwartsia.  Bakker, Sullivan or others would explain something about one of the dinosaurs, and then Horner would be interviewed and say just the opposite, and then call the other views stupid.  I get the feeling that Horner is to them as Kripke ("Kwipke") or Leslie Winkel are to Sheldon Cooper, Leonard, Walowitz, and Kuthrapali.  He just doesn't talk wike Kwipke.  
      The name is a good choice, as Dracorex Hogwartsia looks a lot like the Thestrals from the Harry Potter movies, except they don't have that pesky third pair of appendages.  They only have hind legs on which they walked and forelegs that were more like arms by which the grabbed stuff.  Their sharp teeth look more like those of a predator too (just something that stuck out to me).  What they really look like though is Vermithrax from the 1981 cult classic "Dragonslayer." 

                                                                  Vermithrax

      As always, in all of my posts, if you want to learn more about these, just plug them into a search engine, and you will find more than plenty on the subject.