Dracorex

Dracorex hogwartsia

Dracorex means dragon king of Hogwarts, named by children at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. Its skull features horns and bumps resembling a dragon. Some paleontologists believe it may be a juvenile Pachycephalosaurus.

Physical Description

Measurement	Value	Human Scale
Length	3.0 m	about the size of a human adult
Height	1.2 m	—
Weight	200 kg	about 3 adult humans

Diet & Feeding

Herbivore

Dracorex was a plant-eating dinosaur. Herbivores typically fed on ferns, cycads, conifers, and other vegetation available during their era. Many herbivorous dinosaurs developed specialized teeth and digestive systems for processing tough plant material.

Time Period

Cretaceous Late Mesozoic Era

Dracorex lived during the Cretaceous Late period of the Mesozoic Era, approximately 100.5 to 66.0 million years ago.

The final age of dinosaurs, featuring iconic species like Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and Velociraptor. Dinosaurs reached their peak diversity before the catastrophic asteroid impact at the Chicxulub crater ended the Mesozoic Era.

Discovery & Naming

Named By	Robert Bakker et al.
Discovery Year	2006
Discovery Location	Hell Creek Formation, South Dakota, USA

Classification

Dinosauria → Ornithischia → Pachycephalosauria → Dracorex

Thick-headed lizards

Bipedal herbivorous dinosaurs with thick dome-shaped skulls. The thickened skull roof may have been used in head-butting contests or species recognition displays.