Scientific Names
What is the scientific name for the T. Rex?
Tyrannosaurus rex
This supercontinent formed during the late Paleozoic, bringing all of Earth's landmass together.
What is Pangea?
While Jurassic Park gave it starring billing, the T. rex actually ruled the earth millions of years later during this geological period.
What is the Cretaceous Period?
The type of rock layer where the vast majority of fossils are discovered.
What is sedimentary rock?
This 1993 Steven Spielberg film popularized the Velociraptor, though the real dinosaur was much smaller than its on-screen version.
What is Jurassic Park?
What is the scientific name for the fruit fly?
Drosophila melanogaster
The famous Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops actually lived during this final period of the Mesozoic, not the Jurassic.
What is the Cretaceous Period?
Despite their massive bodies, a T. rex's arms were only about this long—roughly the same length as an adult human's arm.
What is three feet?
The empty, hollow space left behind in sediment after an organism’s soft and hard parts completely decay.
What is a mold fossil?
This 2002 animated movie features a saber-toothed tiger named Diego and a woolly mammoth named Manny.
What is Ice Age?
What is the scientific name for the mouse?
Mus musculus
Because mammals diversified rapidly to fill empty ecological niches after the dinosaurs died out, the Cenozoic is nicknamed this "Age".
What is the Age of Mammals?
Scientists believe the T. rex possessed a massive, bone-crushing bite force of nearly 12,000 pounds—roughly matching the bite force of this modern saltwater reptile, the strongest alive today.
What is a crocodile?
This forms when minerals replicate a replica, filling a hollow mold and hardening into a 3D copy of the original organism.
What is a cast fossil?
This Disney animated film from the year 2000 used CGI dinosaurs against real-world backgrounds and followed an Iguanodon named Aladar.
What is Dinosaur?
What is the scientific name for the zebrafish?
Danio rerio
Flowering plants, also known by this scientific name, first appeared and diversified during the Cretaceous Period.
What are angiosperms?
This is the literal English translation of the Latin and Greek name Tyrannosaurus rex.
What is "Tyrant Lizard King"?
The process where dissolved mineral ions replace organic matter molecule-by-molecule, essentially turning wood or bone into stone.
What is petrification (or permineralization)?
This giant, radioactive apex predator first appeared in a 1954 Japanese film and was partially inspired by a Tyrannosaurus and a Stegosaurus.
What is Godzilla?
What is the scientific name for the spinosaurus?
Spinosaurus aegyptiacus
Known as the "Age of Fishes," this period saw the evolution of the first amphibians and lobe-finned fish.
What is the Devonian Period?
Upending the movie myth that its vision was based on movement, the T. rex actually possessed this type of vision, giving it excellent depth perception like modern birds of prey.
What is binocular vision?
Rather than body parts, this broad category of fossils provides evidence of an ancient organism's behavior, activities, or daily life.
What are trace fossils?
Ross Geller, a main character on this hit 90s sitcom, frequently bored his friends with his job as a paleontologist.
What is Friends?