Dracorex – A Very Popular Bonehead!

The pachycephalosaurs are a group of plant-eating dinosaurs known from the Late Cretaceous.  These animals seem to have been one of the last major dinosaur groups to evolve and most of what scientists know about these herbivorous dinosaurs has been derived from studies of their extraordinary skulls.  Very few fossilised bones have been found, but the skulls, many of which had extraordinary bumps, ridges and horns and some were extremely thick have survived the fossilisation process, partly due to their very robust nature.

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Pachycephalosaurs are dinosaurs of the northern hemisphere (Laurasia).  They are related to the horned dinosaurs such as Triceratops (Marginocephalia), the largest of these dinosaurs known to date is Pachycephalosaurus.  It is estimated that this particular dinosaur grew to lengths of 5 metres or more, the top of the skull was thickened, it comprised of over 25 cm of solid bone.

The best known pachycephalosaur is Stegoceras and most other pachycephalosaur reconstructions are based on this dinosaur.  The dinosaur called Dracorex (Dracorex hogwartsia), is based on Stegoceras.  As with other pachycephalosaurs, fossils of Dracorex (the name means King Dragon of Hogwarts, after the school in the Harry Potter novels); are rare.

Remains of Dracorex were found in the famous Hell Creek Formation of the USA, they consisted of a single tooth, one skull, almost complete and some neck bones.  This dinosaur was named and described in 2006, the name Dracorex was chosen after a competition involving American school children.

An Illustration of Dracorex

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Despite being such a rare fossil, model sales of Dracorex have been really surprising.  Perhaps this is because there are so few models of pachycephalosaurs available.  Sales of this recently introduced dinosaur model have been so good that it enters our top selling Christmas dinosaur model chart at number 3.

To view dinosaur models and toys available from Everything Dinosaur: Dinosaur Models and Prehistoric Animal Toys.