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Quiz about Dinosaur or Not
Quiz about Dinosaur or Not

Dinosaur or Not? Trivia Quiz


What's a dinosaur? Any sort of great big extinct scaly reptile? Nope-- the dinosaurs were something of an exclusive club, with specialized requirements for membership. Take this quiz and test your powers of Dinosaur Determination!

A multiple-choice quiz by pu2-ke-qi-ri. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
pu2-ke-qi-ri
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
232,936
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
15
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
11 / 15
Plays
3207
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 81 (12/15), Guest 162 (9/15), wwwocls (13/15).
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Question 1 of 15
1. Ankylosaurus was a large (25-35 feet long), heavily armored reptile. Its head, back, and tail were covered with fused plates of bone, and its tail ended in a bony club. Sounds like a real tooth-breaker! Tell me, was this living tank a dinosaur?


Question 2 of 15
2. The long-necked, long-tailed, big-bellied Apatosaurus whiled away many a day under the Jurassic sun eating large amounts of vegetation. Given that it could grow 90 feet long and weigh 30-something tons, I imagine that it did not move that fast. Was Apatosaurus a dinosaur?


Question 3 of 15
3. Coelacanths were thought to have gone extinct at the end of the Mesozoic period, the "age of dinosaurs." When a living coelacanth was discovered in 1938, it was hailed as a "living fossil"-- an animal that has survived virtually unchanged since earlier periods in geologic time. Is the coelacanth a dinosaur? Hint


Question 4 of 15
4. Dimetrodon was a memorable predator from the Permian period. You probably remember it as the one with the large sail across its back, supported by bony spines. Dinosaur?


Question 5 of 15
5. (Scary music.) It came from the depths of the ocean. None of the ammonites knew, until it was too late. That tooth-filled head on the end of the long neck, darting up from below, eating them out of their shells. Yikes! Aieeeeee! Elasmosaurus must have been a nightmare for all sorts of Cretaceous sea critters. But was it a dinosaur?


Question 6 of 15
6. Speaking of sea reptiles, the Ichthyosaurs look very much like modern dolphins, with the exception that the tail swings back and forth horizontally, like a fish, instead of vertically, like a whale or dolphin. Were Ichthyosaurs dinosaurs?


Question 7 of 15
7. Iguanodon was so named because its teeth resembled the teeth of an iguana. It was also one of the longest-lived and most successful reptiles of the Mesozoic period. All right, you know the question by now... Hint


Question 8 of 15
8. One more question about Mesozoic swimming critters, this time, the Mosasaurs. They had great big heads with sharp, pointy teeth, and propelled themselves through the water with their large, flattened tails and flippers. Are Mosasaurs dinosaurs?


Question 9 of 15
9. Pachycephalosaurus, a relatively small bipedal reptile, had an enormously thick skull. In fact, if you're ever having trouble getting your kid to wear a bike helmet, just tell them it makes them look like a Pachycephalosaurus. Hey, it worked for me. Your results may vary. So, Pachycephalosaurus- was it a dinosaur?


Question 10 of 15
10. Parasaurolophus looked something like an Iguanodon, but with no thumb spike and a long projecting tube on the back of its head. Was this animal with funny headgear a dinosaur?


Question 11 of 15
11. Pterosaurs were the group of flying reptiles that lived during the Age of Dinosaurs. Unlike birds and bats, their wings were made from skin stretched between their body, the bones of their arm, and their highly elongated fifth (pinkie) finger! Were Pterosaurs dinosaurs, or not? Hint


Question 12 of 15
12. Stegosaurus is probably best known for the double row of triangular plates running down its back, and not for its intelligence (its brain was the size of a walnut.) Current topics in Stegosaurus research-- Were the plates used for cooling? Defense? Or what? However, I'm only interested in one thing. Was it a dinosaur?


Question 13 of 15
13. Another Mesozoic reptile that was not to be messed with was the Triceratops. It had three long, pointy horns on its face, two above its eyes, one over its nose. Its neck was protected by a bony frill. Was Triceratops a... wait... you can just answer the question... Hint


Question 14 of 15
14. Last but not least, if you had to think of a dinosaur, one dinosaur, THE stereotypical dinosaur, you'd think of Tyrannosaurus rex, right? Is it a dinosaur? Or has somebody been stringing you along all this time? (Just answer "yes" or "no" to whether T. rex is a dinosaur.)


Question 15 of 15
15. Notice how I've been describing most of these "dinosaur or not" candidates as reptiles? That's because all (non-avian) dinosaurs are reptiles, but not all reptiles are dinosaurs. So, for a final question, I'd like to ask, "What are the requirements for an animal to be called a dinosaur?" Since this question has to be multiple choice, which of these characteristics is NOT a defining feature of dinosaurs? Hint



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quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Ankylosaurus was a large (25-35 feet long), heavily armored reptile. Its head, back, and tail were covered with fused plates of bone, and its tail ended in a bony club. Sounds like a real tooth-breaker! Tell me, was this living tank a dinosaur?

Answer: Yes

There were two main groups of dinosaurs, divided on the basis of their hip structure. Ankylosaurus was a member of the ornithischian, or bird-hipped, dinosaurs. Ankylosaurus walked on all fours because of its size and weight, and had leaf-shaped teeth for biting off plant material.
2. The long-necked, long-tailed, big-bellied Apatosaurus whiled away many a day under the Jurassic sun eating large amounts of vegetation. Given that it could grow 90 feet long and weigh 30-something tons, I imagine that it did not move that fast. Was Apatosaurus a dinosaur?

Answer: Yes

Apatosaurus was a "sauropod" dinosaur. Sauropods are the dinosaurs you think of with the really, really long necks and tails, huge bodies, and tiny heads. Other noteworthy sauropods are Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, Camarosaurus, and Mamenchisaurus.
3. Coelacanths were thought to have gone extinct at the end of the Mesozoic period, the "age of dinosaurs." When a living coelacanth was discovered in 1938, it was hailed as a "living fossil"-- an animal that has survived virtually unchanged since earlier periods in geologic time. Is the coelacanth a dinosaur?

Answer: Not a dinosaur

The coelacanth is actually a lobe-finned fish. Unlike in ray-finned fish, each fin is supported by a short limb which even contains bones. The ancestors of early amphibians are thought to be lobe-finned fishes, because the fins could provide additional support for moving over land.
4. Dimetrodon was a memorable predator from the Permian period. You probably remember it as the one with the large sail across its back, supported by bony spines. Dinosaur?

Answer: No

Alas, Dimetrodon is not a dinosaur, though it is often billed as one. The dead giveaway is that its legs splay out to the side like a crocodile's. All dinosaurs had legs that were held straight beneath their bodies, like (but don't imagine an evolutionary relationship here) modern mammals.

The dinosaurs' leg arrangement gave them an increased efficiency of motion, which I suppose was one of the keys to their great success.
5. (Scary music.) It came from the depths of the ocean. None of the ammonites knew, until it was too late. That tooth-filled head on the end of the long neck, darting up from below, eating them out of their shells. Yikes! Aieeeeee! Elasmosaurus must have been a nightmare for all sorts of Cretaceous sea critters. But was it a dinosaur?

Answer: No

No dinosaurs ever made it into the oceans. But, since assessments of relatedness are always based on morphology (how the animal is built) rather than environment (where they lived) I wish I could give you a better explanation than that. Unfortunately, I don't know enough anatomy. Elasmosaurus was a member of a larger group, the plesiosaurs, all of which have the same long neck and limbs as paddles.

The closely-related pliosaurs are similar, but have short necks instead of long. As a historical footnote, I might add that the first person to describe an Elasmosaurus fossil, Edward Drinker Cope, accidentally placed the head on the wrong end.

When his then-friend, Othniel Charles Marsh, pointed this out, it lead to the biggest and longest-running feud in all of paleontological history!
6. Speaking of sea reptiles, the Ichthyosaurs look very much like modern dolphins, with the exception that the tail swings back and forth horizontally, like a fish, instead of vertically, like a whale or dolphin. Were Ichthyosaurs dinosaurs?

Answer: No

Don't worry, though-- Ichthyosaurs are still pretty neat. Consider: Some Ichthyosaurs have very, very big eyes with low f-ratios, and their eyeballs were supported by rings of bone. Sounds like they were doing some pretty deep diving. There are some other anatomical features in support of this, and some ichthyosaur fossils show evidence of having "the bends," the same disease that human divers get if they come to the surface too quickly!
7. Iguanodon was so named because its teeth resembled the teeth of an iguana. It was also one of the longest-lived and most successful reptiles of the Mesozoic period. All right, you know the question by now...

Answer: Dinosaur

Yes, it was a dinosaur, an ornithischian like Ankylosaurus in question #1. Just your standard hadrosaur dinosaur, with a long, narrow, beaked head, hind limbs longer than front limbs, and a long, stiff tail. Teeth were packed into the side of its mouth for grinding up plants. Actually, Iguanodon's hands are pretty interesting.

The middle three fingers end in large, tough nails, and bent backward to form a surface for walking on. The thumb is an enormous spike, and the pinkie was opposable, and could be manipulated much like our thumb.
8. One more question about Mesozoic swimming critters, this time, the Mosasaurs. They had great big heads with sharp, pointy teeth, and propelled themselves through the water with their large, flattened tails and flippers. Are Mosasaurs dinosaurs?

Answer: No

Actually, they're related to monitor lizards and snakes. Monitor lizard? Is that like a lounge lizard who sits in front of a computer? Mosasaurs apparently had very powerful jaws, because many an ammonite has been found with mosasaur bite marks in it!
9. Pachycephalosaurus, a relatively small bipedal reptile, had an enormously thick skull. In fact, if you're ever having trouble getting your kid to wear a bike helmet, just tell them it makes them look like a Pachycephalosaurus. Hey, it worked for me. Your results may vary. So, Pachycephalosaurus- was it a dinosaur?

Answer: Yes

Yep, another tried-and-true dinosaur. Some people think thick head was in head-butting contests among males, something like mountain goats. Other people think the bone was too fragile for this. Either way, the most frequently fossilized Pachycephalosaurus part is...the top of the skull!
10. Parasaurolophus looked something like an Iguanodon, but with no thumb spike and a long projecting tube on the back of its head. Was this animal with funny headgear a dinosaur?

Answer: Yes

Parasaurolophus was a hadrosaur, sometimes called a duck-billed dinosaur. Other notable hadrosaurs include Maiasaura, the dinosaur which made nests and tended its eggs, Corythosaurus, the dinosaur with the Greek helmet like crest on its head, and Lambeosaurus, another oddly crested beast.

It's not quite clear what the crests were used for, whether an improved sense of smell, or (my favorite) to create long-distance booming noises!
11. Pterosaurs were the group of flying reptiles that lived during the Age of Dinosaurs. Unlike birds and bats, their wings were made from skin stretched between their body, the bones of their arm, and their highly elongated fifth (pinkie) finger! Were Pterosaurs dinosaurs, or not?

Answer: No. Nope, no, uh-uh...

No, pterosaurs are not considered dinosaurs. However, out of all the non-dinosaur groups thus far, the pterosaurs are the ones most closely related to dinosaurs, and actually just missed the boat by a little bit. So, some paleontologists, most notably Bob Bakker, have advocated including pterosaurs as dinosaurs, but that would mean changing the definition of "dinosaur." I really prefer "cladistics," which makes judgments about relatedness based on an evolutionary family tree, over "taxonomy," the traditional system of classification. From a cladogram, you can see that the group most closely related to dinosaurs, the so-called "sister taxon," is pterosaurs. From traditional taxonomy, you get a lot of haggling over definitions and no real sense of the evolutionary relationships.

After all, orders and families and genera are just artificial impositions on the holy grail of What's Really Going On Here.
12. Stegosaurus is probably best known for the double row of triangular plates running down its back, and not for its intelligence (its brain was the size of a walnut.) Current topics in Stegosaurus research-- Were the plates used for cooling? Defense? Or what? However, I'm only interested in one thing. Was it a dinosaur?

Answer: Yes

The tail of a Stegosaurus bore several large spikes, and was probably used for defense. Officially or unofficially, I'm not sure which, this part of the Stegosaurus' anatomy is known as the "thagomizer," after a Gary Larson Far Side cartoon. The cartoon shows a caveman professor lecturing a class.

He's pointing to the spikes on a diagram of the tail of the Stegosaurus, and the caption reads, "Now this end is called the thagomizer, after the late Thag Simmons." Pa-rum-pum-ksh!
13. Another Mesozoic reptile that was not to be messed with was the Triceratops. It had three long, pointy horns on its face, two above its eyes, one over its nose. Its neck was protected by a bony frill. Was Triceratops a... wait... you can just answer the question...

Answer: Dinosaur

It's hard to write a quiz that asks the exact same question fourteen times and keep things from getting repetitive! Triceratops was a ceratopsian dinosaur. All the ceratopsians maintained the same body plan of a short, stocky body, neck frill, and some means of protection around the neck. Styracosaurus had extra spikes around its frill. Chasmosaurus had smaller spikes, and its neck frill had two large openings to save weight. Pachyrhinosaurus had a large bony bump on its nose, but it is unknown whether or not a horn grew on this bump.

Despite the ferocious-looking face, all ceratopsians ate plants.
14. Last but not least, if you had to think of a dinosaur, one dinosaur, THE stereotypical dinosaur, you'd think of Tyrannosaurus rex, right? Is it a dinosaur? Or has somebody been stringing you along all this time? (Just answer "yes" or "no" to whether T. rex is a dinosaur.)

Answer: Yes

T. rex is a dinosaur! So are all the other bipedal meat-eating dinosaurs, the theropods! Horray! Now, I have to say that I wrote this quiz because the whole "dinosaur or not" theme is one of my pet peeves! It drives me nuts to hear people calling pterosaurs and plesiosaurs and pliosaurs dinosaurs! Hopefully you know better by now.

But there's one other problem I'd like to clear up. T. rex only has two fingers per hand! I can't tell you how many times I see T. rex drawn with three fingers! That drives me nuts, too. If you want a three-fingered meat-eater, draw a nice Allosaurus. Uh...I think I'll stop griping now!
15. Notice how I've been describing most of these "dinosaur or not" candidates as reptiles? That's because all (non-avian) dinosaurs are reptiles, but not all reptiles are dinosaurs. So, for a final question, I'd like to ask, "What are the requirements for an animal to be called a dinosaur?" Since this question has to be multiple choice, which of these characteristics is NOT a defining feature of dinosaurs?

Answer: Socketed teeth

If one were going to classify dinosaurs, they are, from least specific to most specific--
Reptiles (have scaly skin, lay eggs with hard and impermeable shells)
Diapsids (have two special openings (fenestrae) in the skull. This group also includes lizards and snakes.)
Archosaurs (have socketed teeth, among other things. This group also includes crocodilians, plesiosaurs and pliosaurs, and pterosaurs)
Dinosaurs (Fourth and fifth fingers on the hands are reduced, foot reduced to three main toes; three or more vertebrae in the sacrum (the part of the backbone attached to the pelvis), and an open hip socket.)

The last of these, the open hip socket, is the most noticeable. It's what allowed dinosaurs to walk with their legs straight under their body. If you're in a museum trying to decide whether something is a dinosaur or not, this and the toes are probably the best characteristics to go by. So now you know what's a dinosaur or not!
Source: Author pu2-ke-qi-ri

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor crisw before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
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