Posted on 05/28/2006 6:09:41 AM PDT by S0122017
'Hogwarts' Dragon Unveiled By Larry O'Hanlon, Animal Planet News
May 24 — A dragon-like dinosaur named after Harry Potter's alma mater has performed a bit of black magic on its own family tree, say paleontologists who unveiled the "Dragon King of Hogwarts" on Monday in Albuquerque.
The newly described horny-headed dinosaur Dracorex hogwartsia lived about 66 million years ago in South Dakota, just a million years short of the extinction of all dinosaurs. But its flat, almost storybook-style dragon head has overturned everything paleontologists thought they knew about the dome-head dinos called pachycephalosaurs.
"What you knew about pachycephalosaurs — you can chuck it," said Spencer Lucas, curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History.
"Dracorex hogwartsia is a rather fantastic new dinosaur," affirmed paleontologist Robert Sullivan of the State Museum of Pennsylvania.
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For years dinosaur experts had thought the classic dome-headed, head-butting sorts of pachycephalosaurs evolved from earlier flat-headed ancestors. The last thing they expected to find at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs was a dramatically flat-headed pachycerphalosaurs, or "pachy."
"If you were going to predict the kind of dinosaur that would live at that time, it would not be this," said Lucas.
Without so much as a nod of the head or the waving of a wand, hogwartsia has reversed the pachy family tree.
"Instead of going from flat-headed to domed, you're going from dome-headed to flat," Sullivan told Animal Planet News. Along with several colleagues, Sullivan co-authored the first detailed study of the new dinosaur, published this week in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science Bulletin.
Dracorex hogwartsia, which translates as "Dragon King of Hogwarts," was unearthed in 2003 in the Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota by three amateur fossil hunters working in cooperation with the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. But it wasn't until it was at the museum, while the fossil was being carefully prepared, that renowned dinosaur researcher Robert Bakker happened to catch sight of it while visiting. Bakker then recruited pachycerphalosaurs expert Sullivan and other paleontologists to take a closer look.
As for how it got its 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."
Dinosaur ping.
Much like a pearl forms around a grain of sand, every myth has a seed of truth in it, somewhere.
Oh i doubt dragon was a term for dinosaur.
Otherwize, satan would have been a dinosaur.
Feh.
Today's heretic is tomorrow's prophet.
Having extensively studied [in my former non-Christian years] comparative religion/mythology, high ritual magic, Enochian mysteries, Egyptian rites and other such dusty arcanum, I could tell 'Potterionists' a thing or two.....:)
Dragon comes from Drakon [Greek]
http://www.theoi.com/Cat_Drakones.html
More on the "origins of dragons"
http://www.khandro.net/mysterious_dragon1.htm
Years and years of studying "pagan" religions brought me back full-circle to Christianity.
All religions have almost identical tales, therefore there must've been one common, universal source for those stories, at some point.
Though I've walked some theologically dangerous paths, I would not trade the journey for the world.
Perhaps God knew that my particular mindset would only accept His truth once I had fully explored all the other "truths" out there, first.
Burning books is not the right approach.
Knowledge that is banned becomes that which is most desired.
Just ask Ray Bradbury.....:)
Someday when you have nothing else to do for a very long while, explore the symbolism and mythology behind the simple "salamander"....:)
[yes, everything in my life *does* have to have to some great, deep and infinitely complex meaning].....LOL!
> ... every myth has a seed of truth in it ...
The more likely explanation is that fossils have always
been around, but there have only recently (last ~150 yrs)
been satisfactory theories of what creatures they were
from and when those creatures existed.
Pre-19th century humans were used to finding bones of
recently living animals, and might suppose that any
such fossils were of animals still wandering about.
Imagine an 11th century dude finding a skull like this,
showing it to the rest of the clan, and then having the
tribal wizard "explain" what monster it came from, and
what the clan needed to do to avoid such monsters (and
whatever it was, it worked :-)
"Imagine an 11th century dude finding a skull like this,
showing it to the rest of the clan, and then having the
tribal wizard "explain" what monster it came from, and
what the clan needed to do to avoid such monsters (and
whatever it was, it worked :-)"
Ah, yes...the ol' "Mystery hath more power than revelation" trick....it works every time......;D
[which reminds me...don't forget to light a candle on June 21, just to make sure the sun comes back next Dec. 21, mind you]....;-]
I remember you, you are the guy with the cool photoalbum!
I hadn't much time to look at it anymore, but I remember I liked what I saw!
Maybe it had a tumor.
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