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Now this dinosaur, the Dracorex, is something strange. Its name means the Dragon King of a fictional school for wizards. I think I could have come up with that myself. The name, not the dinosaur. For that we need the scientists.

Dracorex is a genus of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur in the Jurassic World Evolution series, originating from Late Cretaceous North America.

In Evolution, Dracorex is first unlocked by the Hammond Foundation upon completion of the Entertainment Division mission on Isla Matanceros.

Characteristics

Notable for its large horns and ridged skull, Dracorex is a herbivore from the pachycephalosaur family that once lived in North America. In fact, this dinosaur’s appearance gives a clue to its name; the English translation of Dracorex's name means "Dragon King", because of the crown-like bony forms on its dragon-like skull. The only species in the genus is "Dracorex hogwartsia", named after the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. Dracorex was approximately 3.5 meters in length and weighed in at over 1,300lbs, with an armored skull that protected it from predators. There is some discussion as to whether Dracorex and the very similar Stygimoloch are actually earlier growth stages for the Pachycephalosaurus. The base genome of Dracorex is tan-brown colour, with black stripes on the legs and on the midsection and has a lighter white underbelly, similar to a Thomson's gazelle.

Gameplay

Evolution

Behaviour

Dracorex lives in small groups of around four individuals. They don't like a crowded exhibit, but are relatively unfussy with how much forest and grassland is inside their enclosure. Dracorex can prove to be a challenge to contain in early parks as many players don't realize that its base social requirement requires a pair of them at the minimum, therefore the Dracorex breaks out as its comfort level becomes too low. It is therefore always best to wait until you have enough money to acquire two.

Available genomes

Fossil icon Dig site Quality Number available
Pachyfossilicon
Frenchman Formation
★★
★★★
★★★★
1
6
6
4
Hell Creek Formation
★★★
★★★★
1
6
4

Skins

Paleontology

The first remains for Dracorex were discovered in South Dakota's Hell Creek Formation in 2004, when three amateur paleontologists dug up a partial skull and other small fragments of bone. The trio donated the fossils to the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, where it was officially named following a poll of children who visited the exhibition. So far only a skull and some skeleton fragments have been recovered.

Discovered in 2006, Dracorex was an exciting discovery at the time due to its unusual dragon-like appearance. The game's Dracorex species is Dracorex hogwartsia, which means "Dragon King of Hogwarts", named in honour of Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardry from the Harry Potter franchise. The name was decided by a group of visitors at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. The flathead was reminiscent of other pachycephalosaur species such as Goyocephale, Homalocephale, and Wannanosaurus. These dinosaurs were once grouped under the now-defunct homalocephalidae branch. Dracorex was later grouped together with Stygimoloch and Pachycephalosaurus under the Pachycephalosaurini tribe.

However, later study of the well-known Stegoceras found that younger members of this genus had flatter heads before growing the distinctive bony dome of the pachycephalosauridae. This discovery brought scrutiny to the validity of flat-headed genera and others such as Stygimoloch. Two papers from 2009 and 2016 argued that Dracorex and Stygimoloch were in fact immature growth stages of Pachycephalosaurus, despite advanced ossification in the Dracorex holotype's vertebrae showing that it was almost fully grown. The debate still persists.

Paleoecology

Dracorex lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous period approximately 65-70 million years ago, alongside many other Late Cretaceous dinosaurs, including its larger relative Pachycephalosaurus in addition to the hadrosaur Edmontosaurus, the ceratopsians Triceratops and Torosaurus, the armored Ankylosaurus, the ornithomimid Struthiomimus, as well as the theropods Troodon and Tyrannosaurus.

Behind the scenes

Dracorex was first revealed to be in Jurassic World Evolution in an IGN First Developer Diary on May 11, 2018.[1]

Gallery

References

  1. Frontier Developments. (May 12, 2018). Dev Diary: Welcome to Jurassic World [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved October 26, 2019.

External links

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