Q 01/05

Which marine mammal, a krill-eating giant, is the largest animal known to have ever existed?

A) Fin whale

B) Blue whale

C) Bowhead whale

D) Humpback whale

Answer · why

B) Blue whale

Blue whale hearts set records too: the heart of one stranded animal weighed 180 kg, the largest known in any animal.

Q 02/05

Pando, a Utah forest of about 47,000 stems sharing one root system, is a clone of which tree?

A) Paper birch

B) Lodgepole pine

C) Quaking aspen

D) Bigtooth maple

Answer · why

C) Quaking aspen

Quaking aspen sends up new stems from its roots, and Pando, at an estimated 6,000 tonnes, is the heaviest tree known.

Q 03/05

The largest known fungal colony, a honey mushroom spanning about 3.5 square miles, lies beneath which US state?

A) Oregon

B) Vermont

C) Colorado

D) Tennessee

Answer · why

A) Oregon

Oregon's Malheur National Forest holds the colony nicknamed the humongous fungus, which may weigh as much as 35,000 tons.

Q 04/05

Which giant sequoia in California, named after a Civil War commander, is the largest living single-stem tree by volume?

A) General Grant

B) General Sheridan

C) General Sherman

D) General Custer

Answer · why

C) General Sherman

General Sherman was once renamed in honor of Karl Marx by a socialist logging colony, and got its old name back when the colony was disbanded in 1892.

Q 05/05

Hyperion, the tallest known living tree at more than 115 metres, belongs to which species?

A) Giant sequoia

B) Douglas fir

C) Sitka spruce

D) Coast redwood

Answer · why

D) Coast redwood

Coast redwood Hyperion was found in 2006 by two naturalists, and it took the height record from another California redwood, the Stratosphere Giant.