Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Animals Quiz — 7 Free Questions

Question 1

Which lightly built, long-legged dinosaur looked and probably ran much like a giant ostrich, on two slim legs with a small toothless head on a long neck, perhaps reaching 50 to 70 kilometres an hour?

Question 2

The word 'dinosaur' was thought up by an English scientist named Richard Owen in 1842. He built it from two words in the Greek language, and used it for a new group of large extinct reptiles known then from just a few bones. What does the word mean?

Question 3

Which heavier, stronger relative of today's grey wolf hunted large Ice Age prey across the Americas until about 10,000 years ago, and is known from thousands of skeletons dug out of the La Brea tar pits?

Question 4

Which shaggy Ice Age plant-eater had two horns on its nose, the front one over a metre long and flattened like a blade, which it may have used to sweep snow off the grass so it could feed? Ice Age people often painted it on their cave walls.

Question 5

Which crow-sized creature from about 150 million years ago had feathers and wings like a bird but also sharp teeth, a long bony tail and clawed fingers like a small dinosaur, making it a famous link between the two groups?

Question 6

Which extinct sea animal had a coiled, spiral shell divided inside into many chambers, and was actually a relative of today's squid and octopus? Its fossils are common in old sea rocks and were once thought to be coiled snakes turned to stone.

Question 7

Which sea reptile of the dinosaur age had a small head on an extremely long neck, a broad round body and four large paddle-shaped flippers, a shape that later helped inspire stories of the Loch Ness Monster?

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About Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Animals

How much do you know about the giants that ruled the Earth long before people? This quiz covers the dinosaurs everyone has heard of, such as Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops and Stegosaurus, and the great beasts that came after them in the Ice Age, like the woolly mammoth and the sabre-toothed cat.

Each question asks something directly, such as 'which was the largest meat-eating dinosaur?', and then gives a few clear facts to help you choose from four names. You will pick up how big these animals really were, when and where they lived, what they ate, and how we know, mostly from fossil bones, teeth, footprints and even dung turned to stone.

The answers also clear up some common mix-ups: many film 'raptors' were far larger than the real animal, the flying reptiles of the dinosaur age were not themselves dinosaurs, and today's birds are the dinosaurs that survived.

Every answer comes with a short explanation and a picture of the animal or its fossils, all freely licensed images from Wikimedia Commons. The wording is kept simple, and any harder word is explained. Every fact has been checked against what scientists currently agree on.