History
Edward Drinker Cope, the paleontologist who discovered Elasmosaurus, made what major flaw with his initial reconstruction?
He put the head on the tail instead of the neck.
This is the geologic era that contains the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous.
Mesozoic era.
This extant clade of dinosaurs are characterized by hollow bones and were ancestrally carnivorous.
Theropoda.
These are the long, defensive spikes on the tails of Stegosaurs.
Thagomizers.
This dinosaur is widely accepted to be the heaviest of all time.
Argentinosaurus.
Tyrannosaurus rex was described by which paleontologist?
Barnum Brown.
This mass-extinction was the most catastrophic in all of Earth's history, wiping out 57% of biological families.
Permian-Triassic extinction event. (AKA the Great Dying)
This clade is a group of squamates that adapted to an aquatic lifestyle and diversified during the Cretaceous period.
Mosasauria.
These are the hair-like filaments coating the bodies of pterosaurs.
Pycnofibers.
This prehistoric reptile has the highest recorded bite force of any terrestrial animal.
Deinosuchus.
Who described the first dinosaur discovered, and in what year?
William Buckland, 1824.
How long ago did the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) first appear?
300,000 years ago.
This is a group of armored ornithischian dinosaurs, containing Stegosauria and Anklosauria.
Thyreophora.
Spinosaurus aegyptiacus possessed what sensory feature that is found in crocodilians today?
Pressure sensors.
This Cambrian invertebrate is currently thought to have been the world's first "apex predator".
Anomalocaris.
In what year was the term "dinosaur" coined, and by who?
1842, by Sir Richard Owen.
What time period contains the evolution of humans, as well as the modern day?
Quaternary.
This is an informal paraphyletic clade of large, carnivorous Triassic Pseudosuchians that were terrestrial.
Rauisuchia.
Some specimens of Psittacosaurus possess what unique trait that no other known relatives were preserved with?
Quills on its tail.
These are the first three dinosaur genera to have been discovered and named.
Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hylaeosaurus.
English fossil collector Mary Anning discovered what well-known pterosaur in December of 1828?
Dimorphodon.
Approximately when did the Cambrian explosion occur?
539 million years ago.
This is a family of extinct marine turtles that lived during the Cretaceous, famous for their huge size and large beaks.
Protostegidae.
What unusual Mesozoic reptile possessed a membrane for gliding attached to its legs instead of its arms?
Sharovipteryx.
This is the earliest dinosaur currently known to science.
Nyasasaurus.