Dinosaurs Are Dandy! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fossils

There are two types of fossils. Trace fossils are imprints that were left behind and eventually were chemically changed into stone. Examples of trace fossils include impressions left behind by animals, such as footprints, or their feces, which is called coprolite.

The other type of fossils are body fossils, which are the remains of part of a dead plant or animal's body that have turned to stone. Body fossils typically include teeth, bones, stems, or shells.

Answer: Herbivore

Scientists have estimated that approximately 65% of dinosaurs were plant eaters. These dinosaurs had flat teeth, which made eating plants easier, and special acids in their rather large stomachs, which helped them to digest plants such as palm trees, pine cones, and ferns.

Some of them even had long necks, which helped them eat tree tops. You may have heard of Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Brachiosaurus? They are all examples of dinosaurs that were herbivores.

Answer: Prehistory

Dinosaurs lived in prehistoric times, so there are no written records that tell us about them. Scientists must study the remains that are found and make educated assumptions based on what they see. They have estimated that dinosaurs lived about 245 million years ago, long before there were any humans around to even think about leaving written records behind.

When you think about it, prehistoric times lasted much longer than historic; the ancient Sumerians who lived in Mesopotamia are credited with inventing cuneiform, one of the earliest written languages, about 3200 BC. Hieroglyphics were used in ancient Egypt at about the same time.

Answer: Reptile

Reptiles also lay eggs. Do dinosaurs share all these characteristics with modern reptiles? No! They were vertebrates with scales and/or bony plates that laid eggs, but it is likely that they were warm-blooded. Even though they don't share all of the characteristics of modern reptiles, they still share enough for scientists to call them reptiles. Do you know that the closest living ancestor to Tyrannosaurus rex today is the chicken? A few years ago, after the genome of a chicken was sequenced, it was announced that chickens and Tyrannosaurus rex are 58% genetically the same!

Answer: Extinct

Extinction occurs when the last member of a species dies. Scientists do not know for sure what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs; for many years they believed that it was due to climate change or changes in their food supply. Many believe today, however, that the event called the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, or the K-T event, happened about 65 millions years ago, and is associated with the the impact of a comet, asteroid, or meteor. How did that kill the dinosaurs? Experts say that such an event would have had a impact with about 2 million times more energy than the strongest nuclear bomb that ever exploded.

The heat alone would have singed all of the plants that many dinosaurs ate. In addition, the burning debris and smoke would have blocked out any sunlight, and tsunami waves would have drenched the land and drowned many animals. If this theory is correct, it means that all dinosaurs would have perished within a matter of weeks of the impact.

Answer: Egg

Scientists assume that dinosaurs laid eggs, which is also what their closest living ancestors, including birds, also do to give birth to their young. The first dinosaur eggs were discovered in Mongolia in 1923; today they have been found on many continents, along with the fossilized bones of young dinosaurs and even those that had recently hatched.

It is very rare, however, to find a dinosaur egg that contains an embryo. There is some evidence that suggests that dinosaurs did care for their young hatchlings.

Answer: Period

Geologists, scientists who study the matter that makes up the earth, have divided the earth's history into time divisions eons or eras, which are split into smaller units called periods, which can also be split into epochs or ages. The dinosaurs lived between 245-65 million years ago during the Mesozoic Era, when the huge super continent of Pangaea was breaking up into smaller continents.

The Mesozoic Era is further divided into the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods, with the mass extinction of the dinosaurs occurring at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

Answer: Biped

Scientists believe that the earliest dinosaurs were bipeds, walking on just two legs. This would have enabled them to walk on their toes, and be pretty quick on their feet! It appears that carnivorous dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, continued to be bipedal creatures with smaller, grasping "arms", while others, mainly herbivores, evolved into quadrupedal creatures walking on four legs. Why? It is thought that their food supply is linked to the answer.

As plant eaters they needed a larger stomach to process their food, which sometimes included tick stems and coarse foliage.

Their large stomach was located in front of their pelvis, which would have created a balance issue for creatures who walked on two legs. In addition, some of the larger, heavier dinosaurs needed four legs to support their weight. For dinosaurs that continued to be bipeds, the tail would have helped to maintain their balance.

Answer: Prey

Remember - the majority of the dinosaurs ate plants. It is very difficult to determine the predator/prey relationships of dinosaurs, but it can be done! Evidence of their meals has been found in the fossilized dung called coprolite; in one case, the study of Tyrannosaurus rex coprolite showed that his meal had contained the bones of a Triceratops. Teeth marks on the bones of two fossilized dinosaurs that presumably died in battle together helped form the hypothesis that each had planned to eat the other. One dinosaur's last meal, that was fossilized in his stomach, included fish.

Answer: Dinosaur

The term dinosaur comes from the Greek words "deinos", meaning "terrible, potent or fearfully great" and "sauros" for "lizard or reptile". It was first used by Sir Richard Owen, a British biologist, in 1841. While the name "terrible lizard" can be used to refer to many aspects of the dinosaur, such as its teeth and claws, it is believed that Sir Richard used the term to describe its size and presence.