Today marks the first anniversary of open-world dinosaur game "Ark: Survival Evolved", and Studio Wildcard has a lot of surprises in store for the game's loyal "Survivors", including the addition of the mighty dragon.

Studio Wildcard will be running a special "ARK Birthday Event" the whole week starting Thursday, June 2. Players will find candles from supply crates which can be used to craft ARK Birthday Cakes. When the candles are all blown out, players will be sent a special message and will receive exclusive items like Player and Dino Party hats. The players can also have a bit of fun on the island by celebrating the game's birthday in funny-looking "Birthday Suits" (with censor-pixelization), and a huge ARK Anniversary Birthday Cake that gives a major XP buff.

Ark's birthday celebrations will also coincide with the introduction of a new, fearsome beast. Studio Wildcard will be unleashing the dragons with this week's birthday patch, opening the Dragon Arena and Dragon Boss Fight.

Apart from dragons, the game will also introduce two new species to the dinosaur world. The diplodocus Insulaprincep, or simply diplodocus, will be making its debut at ARK this week. The beast can carry ten passengers on its back once tamed. The diplodocus is said to be a strange creature, showing no distrust towards humans and does not fight back, even when attacked repeatedly.

The disease-carrying leech, on the other hand, causes more trouble for the survivors of the land. The Haementeria Iaetus attaches itself to any nearby living flesh and sucks the blood out of them, and causes loss of health, reduced stamina and hunger. Leeches are not tamable, but can be kept to create antidotes for its venom, which causes the permanent disease Swamp Fever.

New Structures will also be introduced to the game. Training Dummy will display floating RPG-Style Damage per Second (DPS) values showing the strength of each dino attacks. Players can also infect Dodos deliberately to use them as Disease Vectors.

More information, including details of the patch notes, can be found on the Survive The Ark page.