Q 01/05

Which animal, now tied to the deserts of Africa and Arabia, roamed North America until Paleo-Indian times?

A) Hyena

B) Ostrich

C) Camel

D) Gazelle

Answer · why

C) Camel

Camel relatives were native there: Camelops, a true camel, lived in North America for some three million years and died out around 12,000 years ago.

Q 02/05

Two college students stumbled on Kennewick Man's skull in a Washington river while watching which kind of event?

A) A boat race

B) A county rodeo

C) A rock concert

D) An air show

Answer · why

A) A boat race

A boat race for hydroplanes was under way in 1996 when the pair found the skull in the shallows, hid it in bushes until the finish, then took it to po...

Q 03/05

Which human traces from Oregon's Paisley Caves yielded DNA more than 14,000 years old?

A) Baby teeth

B) Finger bones

C) Braided hair

D) Dried feces

Answer · why

D) Dried feces

Dried feces, known to scientists as coprolites, gave the Paisley Caves the oldest human DNA yet found in the Americas, about a thousand years older th...

Q 04/05

Which animal died out in North America in Paleo-Indian times and returned only aboard Spanish ships?

A) Sheep

B) Horse

C) Cattle

D) Goat

Answer · why

B) Horse

Horse evolution played out largely in North America, yet the animals vanished there about 10,000 years ago and stayed gone until colonists shipped the...

Q 05/05

Megalonyx, a giant ground sloth of Paleo-Indian North America, was first described by which future US president?

A) Thomas Jefferson

B) Theodore Roosevelt

C) John Quincy Adams

D) Andrew Jackson

Answer · why

A) Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson examined its huge claws in the 1790s, and the largest species, a sloth about three metres long, now carries his name.