Identify The Dinosaur Trivia Quiz

Answer: Thecodontosaurus

Thecodontosaurus was a prosauropod, an ancestor of the sauropods (large long necked herbivorous dinosaurs).
Plateosaurus and Yunnanosaurus were also prosauropods, but much larger than Thecodontosaurus (both were 7-8 metres long). You might have seen a Plateosaurus in the same area, since it has been found in France, Germany and Switzerland (all the continents were joined together at this point in time, into the supercontinent named Pangaea), but not a Yunnanosaurus - it lived in China in the Early Jurassic.
Staurikosaurus was also far away, living a few million years earlier in Argentina where the dinosaurs are believed to have first evolved - plus it was a carnivore that walked on two legs.

Answer: Lexovisaurus

Lexovisaurus was a stegosaurid, named after the Lexovii, a Celtic tribe from northern France where it was first found. Stegosaurus looked similar, but was much larger at 9 metres long, and also lived in North America rather than Europe.
Dracopelta and Struthiosaurus were not stegosaurids - they belonged to a group called nodosaurids, which had lower and more clustered armour on their backs. Dracopelta could be found in Portugal, close to the same time as Lexovisaurus. Struthiosaurus was not around in the Late Jurassic, but instead lived in the Late Cretaceous in Austria, France and Hungary.

Answer: Amargasaurus

Amargasaurus, named after La Amarga Creek where it was found, was a sauropod, and a relatively small one at 10 metres long. The spines on its back may have supported a sail of skin.
Argentinosaurus and Saltasaurus were also Argentinian sauropods, but lived later in the Cretaceous Period than Amargasaurus, and also had no spines (although Saltasaurus had bony armour on its back).
Abelisaurus was also a resident of Argentina, but also lived later, and was a theropod (two legged carnivorous dinosaur), so it wouldn't have had peg shaped teeth or a long neck, and might have paid you a bit of unwanted attention!

Answer: Baryonyx

Baryonyx means "heavy claw" due to the large claw it had on each hand. Its bipedal/quadrupedal design is unique among theropods. It is believed to have eaten fish, since in the first skeleton discovered, fish scales were found where the stomach would be - it could have caught them using its claw and/or its crocodile jaws.
Suchomimus didn't look dissimilar to Baryonyx, being a large carnivore with a similar looking skull (its name means "crocodile mimic"), but it lived about 10 million years later, in Niger, Africa, and unlike Baryonyx, it had tall spines running down its back.
Becklespinax lived in the same time and place as Baryonyx, but had vertebral spines like Suchomimus.
Neovenator was another carnivore that could be found at the same time and place, but it had a skull described as resembling a puffin more than a crocodile!

Answer: Falcarius

Discovered in 2005, Falcarius is believed to be a link between the typical carnivorous theropods and an unusual group called the therizinosaurs, which are believed to have eaten plants rather than meat. Falcarius itself is believed to have been an omnivore. It is not known for certain if it had feathers, but other primitive therizinosaurs had them.
Therizinosaurus was, naturally, a therizinosaur, but lived later in the Cretaceous period, in Mongolia.
Utahraptor lived in the same time and place as Falcarius, but was a carnivorous theropod belonging to a group called the dromaeosaurids, known for being agile predators with sickle shaped claws on their feet. It may have had feathers, as a few other dromaeosaurids and their relatives did.
Garudimimus was an ostrich-like dinosaur (ornithomimosaur) that lived later than Falcarius, and was found in Mongolia like Therizinosaurus. It had a small head and long neck, like Falcarius and other ornithomimosaurs, but unlike most other ornithomimosaurs, it had teeth.

Answer: Carcharodontosaurus

Carcharodontosaurus means "shark tooth lizard", for obvious reasons.
The other three were also big theropods. Spinosaurus lived at the same time, in Africa, but could be distinguished from Carcharodontosaurus by its crocodile like skull and the tall spines rising from its vertebrae, which probably supported a sail of skin. Giganotosaurus also lived at the same time, but in Argentina.
And Tyrannosaurus, the one everybody's heard of, lived in North America at the end of the Cretaceous, about 35 million years after Carcharodontosaurus.

Answer: Maiasaura

Maiasaura have been found in large colonies with nests and eggs - since the eggshells in the nests were fragmented, and the smallest youngsters were not fully developed, it is believed that the adults fed them in the nest, which is why its name means "good mother lizard".
Parasaurolophus was also a duck billed dinosaur (a hadrosaur, to use the posh term), but unlike Maiasaura, had a long thin crest at the back of its head.
Iguanodon was a relative of the hadrosaurs, and was also bipedal/quadrupedal, but lived earlier in the Cretaceous period.
And Alamosaurus was not a hadrosaur at all, but a sauropod.

Answer: Stegoceras

Stegoceras belonged to a group called the pachycephalosaurs, known for having thick bony skulls that are believed to have been used for head butting.
Micropachycephalosaurus (known for having the longest name of any dinosaur) is believed to have belonged to the same group (although its fossils are limited, so we can't be sure) but lived in China.
Albertosaurus and Monoclonius lived in the same time and place as Stegoceras, but Albertosaurus was a theropod related to Tyrannosaurus, while Monoclonius was a four legged horned dinosaur - a single horn, as its name (meaning "single sprout") suggests.

Answer: Oviraptor

Oviraptor means "egg plunderer" - one skeleton was discovered close to a nest of eggs. The eggs were believed to belong to another dinosaur, Protoceratops, so the discoverers thought the Oviraptor must have been stealing the eggs to eat. Its beak and grasping hands seemed to support this theory.

However, many years later, the eggs were observed more closely and found to belong to Oviraptor - it now appears this dinosaur was not so much an egg thief as a caring parent. The other three dinosaurs were also two legged theropods from Mongolia, but none of them had a head crest or only two teeth - Alectrosaurus (a relatively early cousin of Tyrannosaurus) and Velociraptor (a dromaeosaurid like Utahraptor) had plenty of teeth in fact, as well as long skulls. Gallimimus was an ornithomimosaur with a toothless beak, and its hands were not designed for grasping.

Answer: Torosaurus

Torosaurus had one of the biggest heads of any known land animal - the two large holes in its crest were to make it lighter. Since the holes meant it would have had limited use in defence, it was probably used for displaying.
The better known Triceratops looked similar, and lived at the same time and place, but could be distinguished from Torosaurus because it had a shorter, more rounded neck crest with no holes in it.
Centrosaurus lived around the same time, but it has only been found in Alberta, Canada. It also looked more different, as it had a long nose horn and short horns above its eyes.
Stygimoloch, again living around the same time and place, was not a horned dinosaur (or ceratopian, to use the posh term) but a two-legged pachycephalosaur, with a domed skull frilled with spikes.