FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about Curiosity Killed the Cat
Quiz about Curiosity Killed the Cat

Curiosity Killed the Cat Trivia Quiz


At least, that may have been one of the factors contributing to the extinction (more or less) of these members of the cat family. Some groups that were once considered extinct have been reclassified as regionally, rather than globally, extinct.

A photo quiz by looney_tunes. Estimated time: 5 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Animal Trivia
  6. »
  7. Miscellaneous Animal Trivia
  8. »
  9. Endangered Species

Author
looney_tunes
Time
5 mins
Type
Photo Quiz
Quiz #
403,165
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
362
Last 3 plays: granpa46 (1/10), purplecat (5/10), kim173 (3/10).
-
Question 1 of 10
1. When asked to name a prehistoric cat, many people would immediately come up with the sabre-toothed tiger. What is the name of the genus of the three currently-recognised species of these felids?

Answer: (One Word, 8 letters)
photo quiz
Question 2 of 10
2. The European cave lion, Panthera spelaea, was given its species name because the first fossil fragment was found in a cave. To which of these modern big cats is it LEAST closely related, because it is in a different genus? Hint


photo quiz
Question 3 of 10
3. Owen's panther, a prehistoric cat whose fossils have been found primarily in France, was originally thought to be an ancestor of the modern leopard, and was classified as Panthera pardoides. It has since been reclassified as a member of Puma pardoides, meaning it is now seen as an ancestor of which of these modern animals? Hint


photo quiz
Question 4 of 10
4. Despite its name, the American lion was not actually related to the African lion.


photo quiz
Question 5 of 10
5. What was the major difference between the scimitar-toothed cats in the genus Hometherium and other machairodonts (such as the Smilodon genus)? Hint


photo quiz
Question 6 of 10
6. The extinct genus Miracinonyx, found in North America during the Pleistocene epoch (2.6 million to 12,000 years ago), included only one species.


photo quiz
Question 7 of 10
7. The Cape lion is locally extinct in the area where its type species was originally identified, although there are living cats in other regions which are now also classified as Panthera leo melanochaitus. Where was the type specimen first identified? Hint


photo quiz
Question 8 of 10
8. Until 2017, the extinct Barbary lion was considered to be a unique subspecies. Due to genetic analysis, it is now considered to have been just another lion, Panthera leo leo. In which of these countries might you have seen a Barbary lion, before they became locally extinct? Hint


photo quiz
Question 9 of 10
9. Panthera tigris tigris is a subspecies of tiger that is commonly named according to where it is found. Which of these groups was the first to become locally extinct? Hint


photo quiz
Question 10 of 10
10. The Javan tiger was declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2008, having not been reliably sighted since the 1970s. Following the 2017 revision of felid taxonomy, it was no longer considered to be an extinct species, but rather an extinct population of Panthera tigris sondaica. Which of these is another extinct population of Panthera tigris sondaica? Hint


photo quiz

(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




View Image Attributions for This Quiz

Most Recent Scores
Mar 14 2024 : granpa46: 1/10
Mar 12 2024 : purplecat: 5/10
Mar 04 2024 : kim173: 3/10
Feb 17 2024 : Guest 161: 4/10
Feb 13 2024 : Jaydel: 4/10
Feb 11 2024 : kyleisalive: 2/10
Feb 09 2024 : masfon: 8/10

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. When asked to name a prehistoric cat, many people would immediately come up with the sabre-toothed tiger. What is the name of the genus of the three currently-recognised species of these felids?

Answer: Smilodon

In the 1830s, a Danish naturalist and his team identified a previously-unknown species in fossils they were excavating in Brazil. He decided that they were felids, and gave them the generic name Smilodon, from the Greek 'smilē' (meaning scalpel) and 'odontús' (meaning tooth) because of their dramatically large canine teeth.

He called his cat Smilodon populator, a species name meaning destroyer, due to its apparent predatory ability. In the 1930s, many more Smilodon fossils were discovered in North America, especially in the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Most of those specimens were a species designated S. fatalis; a very incomplete specimen from Pennsylvania has been named as S. gracilis. Given the incomplete nature of the fossil record, it is not actually clear whether these three are completely different species, or whether some (or all) of them are subspecies.

They are all definitely extinct.
2. The European cave lion, Panthera spelaea, was given its species name because the first fossil fragment was found in a cave. To which of these modern big cats is it LEAST closely related, because it is in a different genus?

Answer: Cheetah

The genus Panthera includes felids whose anatomy allows them to produce a loud roar, unlike other felids whose vocalisations are more subdued. Contemporary members of this genus include the three incorrect responses as well as the jaguar and the snow leopard (recently reclassified from Uncia uncia to Panthera uncia). The cheetah (acinonyx jubatus) is the only extant species of its genus.

As its name implies, the European cave lion is thought to have developed in Europe, diverging from the African branch at least half a million years ago (although some place it as nearly two million years ago). Going by the fossil evidence, they became extinct around 13,000 years ago. Fossils have been found establishing their presence from the Iberian peninsula across all of Europe except the Scandinavian peninsula and the far north of Finland and Russia, stretching east across northern Asia and into North America. The oldest known fossils have been found in Yakutia, Russia, and the most recent ones near Fairbanks, Alaska. There are many cave paintings depicting cave lions, which almost always show them without a mane (even those that are clearly male).
3. Owen's panther, a prehistoric cat whose fossils have been found primarily in France, was originally thought to be an ancestor of the modern leopard, and was classified as Panthera pardoides. It has since been reclassified as a member of Puma pardoides, meaning it is now seen as an ancestor of which of these modern animals?

Answer: Cougar

In 1846, Richard Owen identified a specimen of Felis pardoides and gave it his name, a common procedure. It was subsequently decided that the fossils of this species seemed to be ancestral to leopards, and they were allocated the name Panthera pardoides. Since leopards and pumas are very similar, it was difficult to decide exactly where this animal fitted into the big picture, until some teeth were discovered early in the 21st century which made it clear they were more closely related to the puma family than the panther family.

Hence the reclassification to Puma pardoides, also known as the European puma. At this time, a number of other fossil specimens previously considered to be from different species were all reclassified as Puma pardoides, so that Panthera schaubi and Viretailurus schaubi are also no longer recognised as belonging to an independent species.
4. Despite its name, the American lion was not actually related to the African lion.

Answer: False

Felids are frequently being re-taxonomized on the basis of DNA analysis (replacing the previous use of observable features as the basis for classification), and the American lion was until recently classified as Panthera atrox, which would make it a more distant relative of the African lion, Panthera leo.

It is now classified as Panthera leo atrox, and considered a subspecies of the African lion, which is thought to have originated in northern Africa. Extant subspecies include Panthera leo leo (called the northern lion as it is located in northern Africa), and Panthera leo melanochaitus (found in southern and eastern Africa).

The Eurasian cave lion (Panthera spelaea) diverged from its African ancestors, and spread across Europe to Alaska. There the American cave lion diverged, before extending its range to the south. Remains of P. l. atrox have been found as far south as Mexico.
5. What was the major difference between the scimitar-toothed cats in the genus Hometherium and other machairodonts (such as the Smilodon genus)?

Answer: Elongated canine teeth were serrated, not smooth

As all of these animals are known from, and classified on the basis of, fossil remains, descriptions of their appearance are somewhat speculative. But all members of the extinct grouping known as machairodonts (a name meaning dagger-toothed) can be divided up according to the shape of their elongated teeth.

The Smilodontini have dramatically long and curved canines, which have smooth, sharp edges; the Hometherini have shorter canines, with serrated edges. They are still long enough to have protruded from the mouth, but much less dramatically. Members of the genus lived on every continent, but it is not clear exactly how they were related in terms of species.

The image for the question was of Homotherium serum, a species found in North America, where it co-existed with Smilodon in the southern part of its range. One of the world's most significant sites for Homotherium fossils is Friesenhahn cave in Texas, the source of several dozen different specimens.
6. The extinct genus Miracinonyx, found in North America during the Pleistocene epoch (2.6 million to 12,000 years ago), included only one species.

Answer: False

There were at least two distinct species (M. inexpectatus and M. trumani), and the differences between these have been the cause of some difficulty in deciding where the genus fits into the evolutionary scheme. M. inexpectatus is currently considered to be older and more primitive than M. trumani, and this relationship is used to argue that the development was from an animal that resembled a cougar into one more similar to a cheetah. (Of course, some archaeologists argue for the reverse pattern of development.) The common name for members of both species is American cheetah.

M. inexpectatus was more similar to the cougar than was M. trumani, its proportions being between that of the cougar and M. trumani. It had fully retractable claws, and with its lighter build, M. inexpectatus was probably faster than the cougar. Due to its retractable claws, it possibly was more adept at climbing than M. trumani.
7. The Cape lion is locally extinct in the area where its type species was originally identified, although there are living cats in other regions which are now also classified as Panthera leo melanochaitus. Where was the type specimen first identified?

Answer: Cape of Good Hope

This is one of those slippery victims of reclassification. Until 2017 the Cape lion (then classified as a unique subspecies) was considered to be extinct, with the last one having been sighted around 1860. Now, genetic analysis has shown it to be co-specific with other living, albeit endangered, lions to be found in the southern and eastern parts of Africa.

The Cape lion was first identified as a distinct subspecies of lion because of its distinctive long black mane (extending down its shoulders) and black-tipped ears, and its geographical separation from other lions. Now it is known that the color and length of the mane vary with seasons, and the lighter-maned animals found further north are genetically members of the same subspecies.
8. Until 2017, the extinct Barbary lion was considered to be a unique subspecies. Due to genetic analysis, it is now considered to have been just another lion, Panthera leo leo. In which of these countries might you have seen a Barbary lion, before they became locally extinct?

Answer: Morocco

The Barbary Coast is a region of northern Africa that spreads across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. The 2017 reclassification of many African lions based on extensive morphological (based on external features) and genetic analysis of widespread populations meant that a number of animals that had been considered separate subspecies were determined to actually be co-specific with others. Before this, it was generally considered that a distinct mane was a sufficient marker for a subspecies, but genetic analysis has shown that not to be a reliable basis for classification. Before it was hunted to extinction in the middle of the 20th century, the Barbary lion had a longer and thicker mane than found in more southerly relatives.

This may well have been due to its location, primarily in the Atlas mountain range, rather than on the savannah.
9. Panthera tigris tigris is a subspecies of tiger that is commonly named according to where it is found. Which of these groups was the first to become locally extinct?

Answer: Caspian tiger

There are two more isolated groups of the subspecies (Malayan tiger and Indonesian tiger), which were formerly considered separate species. As its name suggests, the Caspian tiger was found near the Caspian Sea and other areas extending from eastern Turkey and norther Iran through central Asia to northern Afghanistan and western China.

It was declared extinct in 2003. As of 2020, none of the other groups is extinct, although most of them are endangered, at least to some degree. There has been discussion of breeding from the Siberian tiger to reintroduce tigers into the area previously occupied by the Caspian tiger.

The major problem is the lack of a suitable environment to sustain a population, which is pretty much why they became extinct there in the first place!
10. The Javan tiger was declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2008, having not been reliably sighted since the 1970s. Following the 2017 revision of felid taxonomy, it was no longer considered to be an extinct species, but rather an extinct population of Panthera tigris sondaica. Which of these is another extinct population of Panthera tigris sondaica?

Answer: Bali tiger

The tigers found on the Sunda Islands are smaller than their mainland relatives, and are currently considered to be members of a single subspecies, named after the islands where they are/were found. The tigers that used to live on the island of Java have had several name changes over the years.

In 1844 Coenrad Jacob Temminck classified them as Felis tigris sondaicus. In 1929, Reginald Innes Pocock was responsible for reclassifying all tigers as belonging to the genus Panthera rather than Felis, and the 2017 revision made all of the tigers found in Indonesia as P. t. sondaica.

The Javan tiger and the Bali tiger are extinct, while the Sumatran tiger is critically endangered in 2020.
Source: Author looney_tunes

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor rossian before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
Related Quizzes
This quiz is part of series Commission #63:

Can't you 'C' the theme here? For this sixty-third Author's Lounge Quiz Commission, our authors were challenges with titles beginning with the letter C. This Commission commenced in August 2020!

  1. Case of the Mondays Average
  2. Cops and Robbers Very Easy
  3. Crisis in the Kitchen Very Easy
  4. Chance Encounters Average
  5. Casting Call Easier
  6. Come and Get It Average
  7. Czechs in the Mail Average
  8. C Is for Cookie Average
  9. Champagne Moments Easier
  10. Cold, Cold Heart Average
  11. Castle in the Air Easier
  12. Career of Evil Average

3/29/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us