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Quiz about Animal animal Animals
Quiz about Animal animal Animals

"Animal animal" Animals Trivia Quiz


When the scientific name for an animal uses the same word for both the genus and the species, it is called a tautonym. This quiz explores some animals with taxonomic names that are tautonyms.

A photo quiz by looney_tunes. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
looney_tunes
Time
5 mins
Type
Photo Quiz
Quiz #
357,285
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
2437
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
Last 3 plays: MargaritaD (5/10), Guest 107 (9/10), psnz (10/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. There are currently 54 recognised species of seahorse, one of which, the short-snouted seahorse, has a species name that is the same as that of the entire genus. What is its tautonymous name?

Hint


photo quiz
Question 2 of 10
2. The striped skunk is renowned for its ability to emit a foul-smelling odour as a defensive mechanism. Which of these options is its tautonymous taxonomic name, a name which reflects this fact? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. By what name is the Naja naja, pictured, better known? Hint


photo quiz
Question 4 of 10
4. This South American camelid has a specific name, identical to its generic name, by which it is usually called. Which of these is it? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Chaos chaos is also called Chaos carolensis by some. To what family of animals do they belong? Hint


photo quiz
Question 6 of 10
6. This little fellow belongs to a genus of animals that are reputed to commit mass suicide by throwing themselves into the sea. Which tautonymously-named rodent is the only kind of vertebrate endemic to the area referred to by the term Fennoscandia? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. What common Eurasian swan belongs to the species Cygnus cygnus? Hint


photo quiz
Question 8 of 10
8. In North America it is called a moose, while in Europe it is an elk, a name more suggestive of its scientific name. Which of these would that be? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Caretta caretta is an endangered reptile whose name in English refers to one of its bodily features. What kind of animal is shown in the picture? Hint


photo quiz
Question 10 of 10
10. The genus gorilla is divided into two species, and either four or five subspecies. Which of these is the subspecies called Gorilla gorilla gorilla? Hint



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Sep 21 2024 : MargaritaD: 5/10
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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. There are currently 54 recognised species of seahorse, one of which, the short-snouted seahorse, has a species name that is the same as that of the entire genus. What is its tautonymous name?

Answer: Hippocampus hippocampus

The genus name Hippocampus comes from two Greek words - "hippos", meaning horse, and "kampos", meaning sea monster. That seems a bit harsh as a description of these delicate little fish! The short-snouted seahorse is found in the Mediterranean Sea, where it seems to have originated, and in parts of the North Atlantic between the Canary Islands and the United Kingdom. They usually live in shallow coastal waters or estuaries.

H. breviceps is the short-headed seahorse, H. minotaur the bullneck seahorse, and H. zosterae the dwarf seahorse.
2. The striped skunk is renowned for its ability to emit a foul-smelling odour as a defensive mechanism. Which of these options is its tautonymous taxonomic name, a name which reflects this fact?

Answer: Mephitis mephitis

The word mephitis means a disgusting smell, and is synonymous with the words used for the incorrect options. It was originally a Latin word meaning noxious vapour, which was also the name of a minor goddess who protected people from the harmful effects of such vapours.

The striped skunk is roughly the size of a domestic cat, and can be found over almost the entire mainland United States, as well as parts of northern Mexico and much of Canada. Their odour serves as an effective defence against most predators, the exception being the great horned owl, which has virtually no sense of smell. The only other member of the genus Mephitis is M. macroura, the hooded skunk. There are some other animals called skunks which belong to the closely-related genus Conepatus, such as the American hog-nosed skunk, C. leuconotus.
3. By what name is the Naja naja, pictured, better known?

Answer: Indian cobra

The Indian cobra is also called the spectacled cobra because the pattern on the back of its hood (with some imagination) resembles an early type of spectacle, such as pince-nez. Along with the three incorrect options, it is one of the four species of snakes responsible for the bulk of poisonous snake bite hospitalizations in India. The genus Naja has around twenty species (the number changes as scientists reconsider their classifications), all found in Africa and Asia. The genus name comes from an Old Indic word naga (also written as naag), which pretty much meant snake.

The Indian cobra is familiar to many from its use in snake charming. As it prepares to attack, it raises its head from its coiled body and spreads its hood. If it is held in a basket, the snake charmer can make it appear to be entranced by moving the pipe which it is preparing to attack in such a way as to produce a swaying motion of the snake's head.
4. This South American camelid has a specific name, identical to its generic name, by which it is usually called. Which of these is it?

Answer: Vicugna vicugna

The alpaca (Vicugna pacos), llama (Lama glama), guanaco (Llama guanaco) and vicugna (Vicugna vicugna) are the four laminoids, a tribe of the camelid family. Alpacas and llamas have been domesticated, while guanacos and vicugnas are only found in the wild. Vicugnas are mostly found in the Andes - they are native to Peru, where most of them can be found, but have spread to nearer parts of Argentin, Chile and Bolivia. They have also been introduced into Ecuador. The vicugna, the smallest and most graceful of the laminoids, is the national animal of Peru. It is prized for its fine wool, which is very expensive because the animals must be collected from the wild, and each one can only be shorn every three years.

Sadly, once again it was not the llama.
5. Chaos chaos is also called Chaos carolensis by some. To what family of animals do they belong?

Answer: Amoebidae

The family Amoebidae contains also includes the genus Amoeba. Unlike these relatives, the five species belonging to the genus Chaos have multiple nuclei. There is a long history of confusion over the identification and naming of this species. It is now believed that C. chaos classified by Linnaeus in the 18th century and the Peloxyma carolinsensis identified by H. V. Wilson in 1900 are in fact the same organism. When the decision was made that they did not belong in the genus Peloxyma, they were reclassified to the family Amoebidae, in their own genus. Hence the confusion over the species name - some wish to use the original species name, following the accepted principal of using the name allocated by the first discoverer. For the purposes of this quiz, that is my choice, too.

In any case, C. chaos is a large (sometimes up to 5mm across) single-celled organism. Members of this species change their cell shape to create extensions called pseudopods, which are used both for movement and for encircling and ingesting food.
6. This little fellow belongs to a genus of animals that are reputed to commit mass suicide by throwing themselves into the sea. Which tautonymously-named rodent is the only kind of vertebrate endemic to the area referred to by the term Fennoscandia?

Answer: Lemmus lemmus

The Norway lemming, L. lemmus, is the only vertebrate native and endemic to Fennoscandia, the region composed of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Russian regions of Karelia and the Kola peninsula. They have a dramatic population-size cycle, which repeats at roughly four year intervals, but can occur more often if there is a particularly good season - a shorter or less severe winter than usual. Since lemmings reach sexual maturity about a month after birth, and can produce a litter of around six young roughly once a month, a slightly longer breeding season can make the population grow dramatically larger than usual. This leads to food pressure, and younger or weaker lemmings will be forced to leave their home territory in search of food. With a lot of lemmings on the move, geography can force them into a relatively confined space, leading to social stress, and the possibility of a panicked flight from the scene of fighting. Suicidal marches over the edge of cliffs, however, have never been documented (even though we have all heard about them).

The other rodents named in the incorrect options were the black rat (R. rattus), the steppe lemming (L. lagurus) and the lesser Egyptian jerboa (J. jaculus).
7. What common Eurasian swan belongs to the species Cygnus cygnus?

Answer: Whooper swan

The word for the genus of swans is simply the Latin word for a swan. The whooper swan, which breeds in Arctic areas, migrates over long distances south to its summer homes, which are mostly found in southern Europe and southeastern Asia. They are the national bird of Finland, appearing on its original one-euro coin.

The black swan (C. atratus) is found in Australia, the black-necked swan (C. melancoryphus) in South America, and the trumpeter swan (C. buccinator) in North America.
8. In North America it is called a moose, while in Europe it is an elk, a name more suggestive of its scientific name. Which of these would that be?

Answer: Alces alces

In North America, the name for this species comes from the Algonquian languages, derived from words meaning 'strip off', a reference to the fact that the male's antlers drop off after the mating season each year, and re-grow in the spring. There are several North American subspecies, including the Eastern moose, the Western moose and the Alaskan moose.

The European elk is another subspecies, with the subspecies name Alces alces alces. If pronounced with the hard 'c' sound of traditional Latin, it is clear why the Latin name of 'alce' has turned into the English word elk.

In North America, however, there is a totally different animal called an elk, Cervus canadensis; also called the wapiti, it is one of the largest species of deer in the world.
9. Caretta caretta is an endangered reptile whose name in English refers to one of its bodily features. What kind of animal is shown in the picture?

Answer: Loggerhead sea turtle

The loggerhead sea turtle is so called because of its large head. They live their lives at sea, except for brief visits ashore by females to lay their eggs in a hole dug on the beach from where they originally hatched, or nearby. The young emerge and dig their way to the surface about three months later, usually during the night, and immediately make their way to the water and start swimming until they are well out to sea. Hatchlings often use floating brown seaweed of the genus Sargassum to provide protective cover while they grow. Human activities have had dramatic impact on loggerhead turtles - the introduction of the red fox into Australia, for example, led to widespread destruction of turtle nests, and a dramatic decrease in their population.
10. The genus gorilla is divided into two species, and either four or five subspecies. Which of these is the subspecies called Gorilla gorilla gorilla?

Answer: Western lowland gorilla

The Western gorilla, G. Gorilla, has two subspecies - the Western lowland gorilla, G. g. gorilla, and the Cross River gorilla, G. g. diehli; the Eastern gorilla, G. beringei, also has two subspecies - the Mountain gorilla, G. b. beringei, and the Eastern lowland gorilla, G. b. graueri.

There is some debate as to whether the population of mountain gorillas found in Uganda's Bwindi National Park are a distinct subspecies of G. beringei.
Source: Author looney_tunes

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Tizzabelle before going online.
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