This dragon-shaped fossil skull has been given a species name Dracorex hogwartsia (Dragon King of Hogwarts). It’s a pachycephalosaur, and the fossil is causing all sorts of excitement (naming aside) among paleontologists, since it’s flat-headed and shows up near the end of the dinosaur line about 66 million years go; the classic dome-headed pachycephalosaurs were thought to have derived from flat-headed ancestors, which makes this “throw-back” very interesting, even revolutionary.
And the name?
A group of children at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis drew the connection to the fanciful school of witchcraft that the famous fictional wizard Harry Potter attends and came up with the name hogwartsia. “It’s a very dragon-like looking dinosaur,” said Sullivan.
J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, has been notified and apparently rather likes the new name. “I am absolutely thrilled to think that Hogwarts has made a small claw mark upon the fascinating world of dinosaurs,” said Rowling, according to a museum press release. “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 and his colleague’s paper describing ‘my’ dinosaur.”
Posted by DaveBot
(via BoingBoing)