Dracorex

Dracorex hogwartsia may have looked like a fearsome dragon, but it was actually a gentle plant-eating dinosaur. This spiny bone-headed dinosaur was named after Hogwarts, the fictional academy attended by Harry Potter. The fossil remains of this fantastic beast were found in South Dakota, USA. It lived in the Late Cretaceous, 66 million year ago, at the end of the age of the dinosaurs.

• Scientific Name: Dracorex hogwartsia
• Characteristics: Dracorex was a plant-eating dinosaur known only from a fossilised skull and neck. The complete animal may have been up to 10 feet long. Its fearsome-looking bony skull was covered in bumps, spikes, and spines, reminiscent of a fictional dragon. It had a narrow snout and, like other ‘bone-headed dinosaurs’, it probably walked on two long back legs and had short arms with five-fingered hands. Its claws were probably blunt and hoof-like.