Q 01/05

Which dinosaur died out so long before Tyrannosaurus rex that T. rex lived closer in time to humans?

A) Triceratops

B) Stegosaurus

C) Ankylosaurus

D) Velociraptor

Answer · why

B) Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus vanished about 145 million years ago, some 76 million years before T. rex appeared. Only 66 million years separate the last T. rex from us...

Q 02/05

Which geologic period takes its name from a mountain range on the border of France and Switzerland?

A) Devonian

B) Permian

C) Jurassic

D) Cambrian

Answer · why

C) Jurassic

Jurassic rocks were first picked out in the limestone of the Jura Mountains, just north of the Alps. Alexander von Humboldt studied them on a tour of ...

Q 03/05

Which geologic period, the last of the dinosaur age, takes its name from the Latin word for chalk?

A) Carboniferous

B) Cretaceous

C) Jurassic

D) Silurian

Answer · why

B) Cretaceous

Cretaceous comes from creta, Latin for chalk, which built up on sea floors from the shells of tiny plankton. The White Cliffs of Dover are made of it.

Q 04/05

Which geologic period ended with the 'Great Dying', the worst mass extinction in Earth's history?

A) Ordovician

B) Cretaceous

C) Triassic

D) Permian

Answer · why

D) Permian

The Permian closed with about 81% of marine species wiped out. It was also the greatest known mass extinction of insects.

Q 05/05

Which crater, buried beneath Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, marks the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs?

A) Vredefort

B) Chicxulub

C) Barringer

D) Sudbury

Answer · why

B) Chicxulub

Chicxulub was found in the late 1970s by geophysicists who were hunting for oil, not dinosaurs. The crater is about 200 km wide and lies under a kilom...