The Bare Bones of Water Trivia Quiz

Answer: The largest one, on the outside end of the spiral

As is the case with many extant molluscs, the ammonites always lived inside their shell, reaching out to the outer world only with their feeding organs.
Similarly to extant reptiles, the ammonites had to grow a larger shell each time the previous one became too small. But ammonites didn't shed the shell: they just added a larger compartment, and moved towards the outer chamber (the largest at that time).

Answer: Sea scorpion

These amazing arthropods have been known to grow up to 2.5m long, yet most were only small (although probably still quite large compared with scorpions today). A strange looking creature, eurypterids were not true scorpions and they lived in both warm salt and fresh water.

Answer: Siberia

The first fossils of trilobites have been dated between 520 and 540 million years BC. These earliest trilobites have been found in Siberia, while more recent fossil trilobites have been found all over the world.

Olympus Mons is on Mars, "Dark Side of the Moon" is a Pink Floyd album and "Elysium" is a movie directed by Neill Blomkamp.

Answer: Butterfly shells

Mucrospirifers belonged to the order Spiriferida. These brachiopods had an elongated hinge line giving them a wing-like appearance leading to the nickname of butterfly shells. These winged brachiopods were filter feeders.

Answer: Pliny the Elder

The oldest found fossilized shark teeth date back to the Late Ordovician period. Triangular in shape, fossilized shark teeth have helped to trace the evolution and biology of sharks. In Pliny the Elder's writings, these objects are considered to have fallen from the sky during lunar eclipses.

Answer: Big tooth

The megalodon lived during the Cenozoic Era and is known as one of the most powerful predators in history. Megalodon fossils found indicate that they grew to around 18 metres long, and are similar in shape to a great white shark (although much bigger). Teeth of megalodon sharks are the largest of any known shark and are several times bigger than that of a great white shark. Megalodon fossils have been found in several different parts of the world - both southern and northern hemispheres, as well as shallow and deep waters.

Answer: Antarctica

The duck-billed dinosaur is a type of hadrosaur, a large plant-eating dinosaur. Vega Island is close to the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula. This particular fossil was found in 1998 by Argentinian and US scientists, along with an array of marine animals and ancient birds.

Answer: Boat-like

Scaphites belong to the ammonite family and their fossils are found in marine deposits. As the animals mature, the tightly coiled shell straightens out before again coiling, giving the shell a boat-like appearance. Used as an index fossil, scaphites are believed to have been named after the Greek word 'skafh' which means boat.

Answer: Water from an aquifer that does not recharge naturally

Fossil water is also known as paleowater and is found in aquifers that either don't recharge naturally, or recharge so slowly it isn't noticeable over short periods of time. Several aquifers of fossil water exist, mainly under deserts such as the Sahara and the Kalahari.

Answer: Coelacanth

All these creatures are found in the order of the Coelacanthiformes, in the fish phylum - class of the lobe-finned fish.
These fishy creatures developed in the Devonian era (between 419 million years ago and 358 million years ago).
The first modern coelacanth was found in 1938 in the nets of a South-African fisher who sailed before the African east coast. A conservator of the museum of natural history was really excited about this discovery, but many contemporary scientists thought it was some kind of hoax.
The West Indian coelacanth is critically endangered, while the Indonesian coelacanth is considered vulnerable.
The Panderichthys was a fish living in shallow waters. One of its descendants, the Tiktaalik, developed primitive paws from its fins, so it could try its luck on land. The Acanthostega also had paws, with no less than eight digits per paw.