Dracorex is a
dinosaur genus of the family
Pachycephalosauridae, from the Late
Cretaceous of North America. The
type (and only known)
species is
Dracorex hogwartsia, meaning "
dragon king of
Hogwarts". It is known from one nearly complete skull (the
holotype TCMI 2004.17.1), as well as four cervical vertebrae: the atlas, third, eighth and ninth. These were discovered in the
Hell Creek Formation in
South Dakota by three amateur paleontologists from
Sioux City,
Iowa. The skull was subsequently donated to the
Children's Museum of Indianapolis for study in 2004, and was formally described by
Bob Bakker and Robert Sullivan in 2006. However,
Jack Horner et al. suspect that it is a juvenile
Pachycephalosaurus and an analysis of pachycephalosaur fossils by a joint team from the University of California, Berkeley and the
Museum of the Rockies has questioned the validity of two named genera of pachycephalosaur,
Dracorex and
Stygimoloch. According to the team, specimens of
Dracorex and
Stygimoloch might actually represent earlier growth stages of
Pachycephalosaurus. As this article on the UC Berkeley website says, "The confusion is traced to their bizarre head ornaments, ranging from shields and domes to horns and spikes, which changed dramatically with age and sexual maturity, making the heads of youngsters look very different from those of adults."
