Paleontology Trivia

1. What does the name 'pterodactyl' mean?

From Quiz Badass Hungry Pterodactyl

Answer: Winged finger

'Pterodactyl' comes from the Greek 'pteron' (wing) and 'daktulos' (finger), because it had wings made of skin and muscle, which stretched from its fourth finger to its hind limbs. The official scientific name for the pterodactyl is Pterodactylus antiquus, and it is the only species in the Pterodactylus genus. The pterodactyl belonged to the Pterosauria family, a family of flying reptiles ('Pterosaur' meaning 'winged lizard').

From Quiz Rainbow Fossils from the Eromanga Sea

Answer: Silica

Opal fossils are particularly rare, as they rely on a series of particular events to occur. Inland seas, such as those found during the Cretaceous period in Australia needed to recede, leading sediments to mix with reactive minerals to form a type of sandstone. These rocks began to weather, leading to the presence of silica. Opal is formed from a solution of silicon dioxide and water. As water ran down through the earth, it picked up silica from sandstone, and carried this silica-rich solution into cracks and voids caused by natural faults or decomposing fossils.

From Quiz Raiders of the Lost Shark

Answer: Giant tooth

Megalodon is the species of giant sharks that lived millions of years ago, but seems to have died out somewhere between 1.5 and 3.6 million years ago, the best guess being around 2.6 million years ago. In Greek, the name 'megalodon' means 'giant tooth'. The best evidence for megalodon is the giant tooth fossils that have been found that prove its existence.

From Quiz Footprints on the Sands of Time

Answer: Tasmanian tiger

Also known as the thylacine, the Tasmanian tiger was the largest carnivorous marsupial until its extinction. All extant carnivorous marsupials are in the family Dasyuridae, and include the incorrect options. The genus Badjcinus got its name from the words 'badj' (meaning expert hunter in the Wanyi language) and 'kynos' (meaning dog in Greek). The family name Thylacinidae has the same Greek root. B. turnbulli, the only known member of the genus, was quite small, probably about half the weight of a fully grown domestic cat. It is known to have been carnivorous from its dentition, and suspected to have been arboreal because its fossils have been found with a number of rainforest species.

From Quiz Gone, But Not Forgotten

Answer: The bone of a giant

The concept of dinosaurs was not common in the 17th century. Many scientists of the era believed that fossils were just unusually-shaped rocks that happened to look like body parts. At first, Robert Plot considered the idea of the femur belonging to an elephant brought to England during Roman rule, but he decided that the bone was too big for an elephant. Instead, he concluded that it had come from a giant. Although the original fossil has been lost, detailed drawings of the thighbone show that it belonged to a Megalosaurus.

From Quiz The Four Winds Uncover Fossils in India

Answer: King

The name Rajasaurus translates to 'King of Lizards' with Raja being the Sanskrit word for king. Further research into the various bones found and thought to be part of the Rajasaurus have led to the understanding that this animal evolved after the Indian subcontinent had separated from the ancient landmass called Gondwana. As a result, the remains of the Rajasaurus have only been found on the Indian peninsula. In 2003, scientists agreed that the Rajasaurus could be classified as a separate genus altogether, belonging to the Abelisauridae family.

From Quiz Prehistoric Who am I? Part 7

Answer: Animantarx

Nodosaurs were primitive members of the Ankylosaur family. Named by K. Carpenter, J. I. Kirkland, D. L. Burge and J. Bird in 1999, Animantarx is known from remains consisting of a partial skull as well as pieces of the ribs, legs and backbone. It was relatively small, measuring around three metres long. The other animals listed were also Nodosaurs. Niobrarasaurus means "Lizard from the Niobrara chalk", Edmontonia means "From Edmonton" and Struthiosaurus means "Ostrich lizard".

From Quiz Prehistoric Who am I? Part 6

Answer: Alioramus

Named by Sergei Kurzanov in 1976, Alioramus is known from a single partial skeleton consisting of parts of the skull and some foot bones. Its name comes from the fact that it represents a distinct branch of Tyrannosaurid evolution that left the main evolutionary line early in the late Cretaceous. The other animals listed were also Tyrannosaurs. Nanotyrannus means "Dwarf tyrant", Albertosaurus means "Alberta lizard" and Appalachiosaurus means "Lizard of the Appalachians".

From Quiz Earth History: The Paleogene Period

Answer: 65-24 million years ago

The Paleogene is actually a sub-period of the Tertiary Period, which covers a large portion of the Cenozoic Era. The beginning of the Cenozoic marked both the ending of the Mesozoic Era and the Cretaceous Period, about 65 million years ago. The Tertiary is split up into the Paleogene (65-24 mya) and the Neogene (24-1.8 mya), which are in turn divided into Epochs. Epochs of the Paleogene are the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene.

From Quiz Prehistoric Who am I? Part 2

Answer: Rhyncosaurus

Named by Sir Richard Owen in 1841, Rhyncosaurus was a very small animal, measuring less than one metre long. The structure of its skull indicates that it had a good sense of smell but poor hearing. Of the other animals listed, two (Hyperodapedon and Mesosuchus) were rhyncosaurs and one (Trilophosaurus) was a more primitive diapsid. Mesosuchus means "Middle crocodile", Trilophosaurus means "Three crested lizard" and Hyperodapedon means "Best pestle surface".

From Quiz German Paleontology

Answer: Archaeopteryx

Archaeopteryx, sometimes called Urvogel in Germany, is one of the world's first birds. It lived during the Jurassic era and had many reptilian features, but also notably had feathers. These features have made it a much-celebrated transitional fossil between dinosaurs and birds. If you've ever seen pictures of Archaeopteryx, you've probably seen the Berlin Specimen. It's the well-preserved fossil with its neck arched back, found by a farmer who sold it to buy a cow. Archaeopteryx skeletons are so rare that each one has an individual name or label.

From Quiz Dangerous Deadly Deinonychus

Answer: 1931

The first Deinonychus fossils were discovered by palaeontologist Barnum Brown in 1931 near the town of Bilings, Montana. He named the new dinosaur Daptosaurus ("Active Lizard") but failed to publish any scientific papers that would have Daptosaurus officially named and recognised. Thirty-three years later, in 1964, another palaeontologist, John Ostrom, discovered more of the same fossils. Since Daptosaurus wasn't scientifically recognised, he was able to have the name changed. Thus, in 1969, Daptosaurus became Deinonychus.

From Quiz A person, a place, a characteristic

Answer: my discoverer's wife

Avaceratops means "Ava's Horned Face". It was first discovered by a fossil dealer, Eddie Cole, in Montana, USA, in 1981. When palaeontologist Peter Dodson formally described the new dinosaur, he named it after Mr Cole's wife, Ava.

From Quiz Velociraptors I Have Known and Loved

Answer: 1924

The first specimens of Velociraptor were discovered in 1924 by a group of American palaeontologists visiting Mongolia's Gobi Desert. However, it was unclear what type of dinosaur Velociraptor was until the 1964 discovery of its larger relative, Deinonychus.

From Quiz Remains of the Day

Answer: North America

The first (documented) T-rex fossils were discovered in Colorado in 1874. About 30 specimens are known to exist. The best preserved one, nicknamed "Sue," was found in South Dakota in 1990, and was sold to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for $7.6 million dollars. Tyrannosaurus rex was a carnivore who lived during the late Cretaceous Period, just before dinosaurs became extinct.

From Quiz The Bare Bones of Water

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).

From Quiz The Trouble With Trilobites

Answer: Three lobes

The name trilobite means "three lobed". The earliest fossil records of trilobite species date back over 500 million years.

From Quiz Real Dragons: The Masters Of The Sky

Answer: Archaeopteryx

This creature was really more dinosaur than bird with teeth, claws on the wing and a long tail. However, it has many other traits that have led scientists to classify it as the first bird. This creature lived in the Middle Jurassic Period.

From Quiz Real! Dead! Monsters!

Answer: great white shark

Fossilized Megalodon teeth were once thought to be petrified dragon tongues. The Megalodon lived approximately 25 to 1.5 million years ago.

From Quiz Hominid Family Names

Answer: Homo sapiens

From a strictly morphologic perspective, Cro-magnon was the same as a modern human or a Homo sapiens. Homo erectus is a much more ancient "Human" than Cro-magnon. The so-called "Piltdown Man" was proved conclusively to be a fraud in the 1950's. Homo neanderthalensis existed in Europe at the same time as Cro-magnon humans. Neanderthals are a different species from modern humans.

From Quiz Meet the Ancestors

Answer: Primates

Primates is the order of mammals that includes humans, apes, monkeys and lemurs. Carnivora (carnivores) is the order that includes dogs, cats, etc. Ceboidea is a "super-family", and includes the New World monkeys (spider-monkeys, marmosets, etc). Hominidae includes humans, but is a family and not an order: it is a group within the Primates.

From Quiz Fossil Finds near Lake Turkana

Answer: flat-faced

'Flat-faced' is an approximate translation of the Greek word 'platyops'. In this case it refers to the atypical smaller degree of subnasal prognathism - in English, that means that unlike most species, its jaw doesn't jut out much beneath the nose. Kenyanthropus platyops was discovered by Kenyan research assistant Justus Erus, a member of Meave Leakey's team, and excavated in 1998 and 1999 at Lomekwi, in the Nachukui Region just west of Lake Turkana.

From Quiz A Brief History of Australopithecines

Answer: Australopithecus africanus

Dart discovered a skull which he called Australopithecus africanus, which means "southern ape-man from Africa". He found this skull in a crate of fossil-bearing rock from a lime quarry in Taung, in what was then Bechuanaland, and is now Botswana. The skull was very small, and Dart called it the Taung Child. Dart's discovery was not taken seriously for 23 years. Scientists believed it was the skull of an ape. Finally, in 1947, similar fossils were found in Sterkfontein, South Africa, and brought credence to Dart's find; and in 1950, eminent scientist Wilfrid Le Gros Clark cleared Dart's name forever in a scientific journal. The Taung Baby was probably about six years old when it died.

From Quiz Megalodon, terror of the oceans

Answer: a six-story building

Megalodon was about 65 ft long, the height of a six-story building. Scientists extrapolate the size of megalodon from the size of fossilised teeth and even complete fossilised jaws that have been found. The jaws can be up to 3 metres wide. You could drive a car through a set of Megalodon dentures without scraping the paint! Liberty is 151ft, California redwoods are 330ft and the Eiffel tower 986 ft - a bit ambitious even for Megalodon!

From Quiz They Are Not Dinosaurs

Answer: Its very long neck

The neck of an adult Tanystropheus could be five times the length of its body but it only contained 9 to 12 vertebrae so it was not very flexible. The neck of one specimen was mistaken for the wing of a pterosaur. It grew to up to six metres long, was a poor swimmer and apparently could shed its tail like some modern lizards.

From Quiz The Burgess Shale

Answer: Canada

It's found in Yoho National Park, on the border between British Columbia and Alberta.

From Quiz Mass Extinctions

Answer: it is killed off completely

Over 99 percent of all animals that existed on Earth are now extinct. A few recent examples of extinction are the dodo bird and the passenger pigeon.

From Quiz Archaeopteryx etc

Answer: 1860

The feather was an enlightening discovery. Not only was it 150 million years old, but it had aerodynamic qualities. The feather pre-dated the earliest birds that were known at the time.

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Last Updated Jul 12 2025 5:44 AM

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