Dragon-Like Dinosaur Unveiled at Children's Museum of Indianapolis

The 66-million-year-old Dracorex hogwartsia was named in honor of the author of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling. The name comes from the Latin words draco (meaning dragon), rex (meaning king), and hogwartsia (after the fictional Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry created by Rowling).

Source: Inside INdiana Business

Press Release

INDIANAPOLIS – The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and Dr. Robert Bakker, considered one of the leading paleontological scientists in the world, formally announce the naming of a 66-million-year-old, first-of-its-kind, dragon-like dinosaur in honor of celebrated children’s book author J.K. Rowling. The name Dracorex hogwartsia,from the Latin words draco (meaning dragon), rex (meaning king), and hogwartsia (after the fictional Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry created by J.K. Rowling), does indeed conjure up visions of ancient majestic beasts.

Dracorex hogwartsia will be unveiled on May 22, 2006 at 10 a.m. The public will be able to view the magnificent fossil on Level 2 of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis through the summer. It will then move to its permanent home in Dinosphere: Now You’re in Their World®, a $25 million immersive dinosaur experience for children and families. Dinosphere® houses one of the largest displays of real juvenile and family dinosaur fossils in the United States.

“The creatureis a very special dinosaur that seems at home in a “Harry Potter” adventure,” explained Bakker. “It was a plant-eater, only about as heavy as the war horse of a medieval knight. And itcarried an armor-plated head of almost magical configuration, covered with knobs and spikes, horns and crests. I was staring at the skull last summer, and the name just popped into my head, hogwartsia, said Dr. Bakker."

The new dinosaur species is from the pachycephalosaur dinosaur family. The skull with its mixture of spiked horns, bumps and a long muzzle caused some middle school children who saw the fossil in the museum’s Paleo Prep Lab to remark, “It looks like a dragon!” This “Type Specimen” is unique in that it is the single specimen that defines the species. Every species of animal and plant needs a Type — the specimen that shows us how the species is different from any other species. Once a Type is selected, it cannot be shifted to another specimen except under very unusual circumstances.

Author J.K. Rowling recently wrote: “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.”

“The name is supremely appropriate as Rowling’s popular “Harry Potter” series of fantasy novels depicts a world where young witches and wizards encounter dragons, griffins and other magical creatures,” said Dr. Jeffrey H. Patchen, president and CEO of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. What a fantastic opportunity to merge real science with J.K. Rowling’s marvelous gift of storytelling. Exploring this dragon-like creature from the Cretaceous is like turning the pages of a “Harry Potter” novel where the characters not only encounter dragons, but engage in competitions against them.”

According to Bakker, “Honoring an author with a species name is rare. But it should be done more often. Art, literature and science are three ways of seeing reality and sharing our exploration of the world. From now on, anyone thinking about Bone-Head dinosaurs will cite the Type of Dracorex hogwartsia housed at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.” Bakker added that once coined, the species name will last forever. No one can change it unless it is proven that the species already has a bona-fide name based on a previously discovered specimen.

Legends about dragons are common around the world, and dragons have held major significance in various religions and cultures. Adrienne Mayor, a renowned classical folklorist and the author of “The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times” (2000) and “Fossil Legends of the First Americans” (2005) had the opportunity to see Dracorex hogwartsia. “The shape of the dinosaur’s skull, with its long muzzle, bizarre knobs and horns, surprised the scientists,” Mayor said. “But the skull looks strangely familiar to anyone who has studied dragons! Dracorex has a remarkable resemblance to the dragons of ancient China and medieval Europe.” Mayor has utilized her keen interest in paleontology and researched an abundance of long-forgotten literary, artistic and paleontological evidence to support her thesis that at least some of the fantastic mythological monsters were based on paleontological realities.

According to Mayor, Sioux Indians who found a skull like this might have identified it as “Unktehi,” the mythical horned water monster of the South Dakota badlands, where the fossil was unearthed.

Mayor remarked, “Dracorex helps us understand how fossils of mysterious, extinct animals may have inspired ancient people around the world to believe that dragons and other fabulous creatures once lived. Like modern paleontologists, fossil hunters in antiquity tried to imagine the appearance and behavior of the creatures whose bones they found. The old stories about dragons still have the power to enchant us today.”

The nearly complete pachycephalosaur skull was donated to The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis by Steve Saulsbury, Patrick Saulsbury and Brian Buckmeier, all from Sioux City, Iowa. The three friends found the fossil during a fossil collecting trip in the Hell Creek Formation in central South Dakota. Steve fondly recalled The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, where he used to take his young daughter Alexandra when he and his family lived in Indianapolis during Steve’s residency at Indiana University Hospital in the early 1990s. Steve and the others agreed the museum would be the perfect home for the specimen, and the trio donated it in late 2004. Brought to the museum’s Paleo Prep Lab for cleaning and studying, it was little more than a box of parts, shattered by erosion before its discovery. It took Victor Porter, the vertebrate paleontologist at The Children’s Museum, two years to patiently glue together the many fragments.

The new species flummoxes old theories. The combination of a flat forehead and a multitude of spikes and lumps have never been seen before. Dracorex hogwartsia is an exceptionally advanced species.

“This feeds the pachycephalosaur family tree to the wood chipper,” noted Bakker and Dr. Robert Sullivan, another member of The Children’s Museum’s Scientific Advisory Board of Paleontologists. Fierce debates have raged about whether the pachy’s butted each other, but since no good neck bones had been found, conclusive evidence was lacking. The Children’s Museum Paleo Lab personnel scored a cretaceous triumph when they pieced together four nearly complete neck vertebrae for Dracorex hogwartsia. Special anti-twist joints and enlarged muscle attachments seem to show that these dinosaurs indulged in violent kinetic exercises. “They were head-bangers!”

According to the museum’s Scientific Advisory Board, “Children’s museums don’t find new species. That’s for the ‘adult’ institutions. But The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis combines first-rate scientific exploration within a kid-friendly environment.”

Source: The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis