153 Fun Facts About Dinosaurs

In which type of rock are nearly all dinosaur fossils found?

Sedimentary rock: remains buried in layers of sand, mud or silt are mineralised as the layers harden, whereas igneous and metamorphic rock form at temperatures that destroy bone.

Which of these is NOT a period in the Mesozoic Era?

The Mesozoic Era consists of three periods: Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. The Cambrian belongs to the earlier Paleozoic Era.

Which modern animals evolved directly from small theropod dinosaurs?

Birds are actually living dinosaurs — they evolved from small theropod dinosaurs and are the only dinosaur lineage that survived the mass extinction 66 million years ago.

What killed the dinosaurs approximately 66 million years ago?

An asteroid impact: a rock 10 to 15 km wide struck the Yucatán Peninsula, and the lingering impact winter shut down photosynthesis on land and at sea.

Microraptor, a crow-sized dromaeosaur from China, is unusual among dinosaurs for having how many wings?

Four wings: long flight feathers on its hind legs formed a second pair, and preserved pigment cells suggest Microraptor was glossy black.

Therizinosaurus had the longest hand claws of any known land animal. Roughly how long were they?

Over 50 cm (20 in) of claw on a probable plant-eater: Therizinosaurus likely used them to pull down branches rather than to fight.

Diplodocus's name means 'double beam', a reference to bones found in which part of its body?

Tail: the name refers to the double-beamed chevron bones beneath its tail vertebrae; the tail made up over half the animal's length and may have cracked like a bullwhip.

During which geological period did T. Rex live?

Late Cretaceous: T. rex lived roughly 68 to 66 million years ago in western North America, among the very last non-bird dinosaurs before the mass extinction.

Nigersaurus, a sauropod from Niger with a wide, vacuum-cleaner-like muzzle, had roughly how many teeth?

About 500: Nigersaurus packed more than 500 teeth into its broad muzzle, each replaced roughly every 14 days as it grazed on low-growing plants.

What does the word "dinosaur" mean?

The word "dinosaur" was coined by Sir Richard Owen in 1842 from the Greek words deinos (terrible/fearfully great) and sauros (lizard), meaning "terrible lizard."

What is the name of the crater left by the asteroid that caused the dinosaur extinction?

The Chicxulub crater, located beneath the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, is roughly 180 km (110 miles) in diameter. It was formed by the asteroid impact that triggered the mass extinction 66 million years ago.

Jurassic Park gave which real dinosaur a fictional neck frill and the ability to spit venom?

Dilophosaurus: the real animal was about seven metres long with a pair of thin crests on its head and no frill or venom; the film also shrank it considerably.

The first near-complete dinosaur skeleton found in North America, Hadrosaurus, was dug up in which state?

New Jersey: Hadrosaurus foulkii was dug from a marl pit in Haddonfield in 1858, described by Joseph Leidy, and in 1868 became the first mounted dinosaur skeleton displayed anywhere.

Which sail-backed dinosaur may have been the largest carnivorous dinosaur ever?

Spinosaurus carried a sail of neural spines over 1.65 m tall and, at roughly 15 metres long, may have outsized T. rex.

Iguanodon and the duck-billed hadrosaurs belong to which dinosaur group?

Ornithopods: Iguanodon and the hadrosaurs are ornithopods, beaked plant-eaters that walked on two or four legs and chewed with batteries of grinding teeth.

A paleontologist is a scientist who studies what?

A paleontologist is a scientist who studies fossils and prehistoric life, including dinosaurs, ancient plants, and other organisms. The field combines biology, geology, and chemistry.

Approximately how long ago did the first dinosaurs appear?

The first dinosaurs appeared approximately 230-240 million years ago during the Middle to Late Triassic period. Early dinosaurs like Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus were small, bipedal predators.

Which dinosaur had a club-like tail it could use as a weapon?

Ankylosaurus: its tail ended in a massive club of fused osteoderms that could be swung sideways with enough force to break the bones of a predator.

Sail-backed Dimetrodon, often mistaken for a dinosaur, died out roughly how long before the first dinosaurs?

About 40 million years: Dimetrodon died out around 270 million years ago in the Permian, long before the first dinosaurs; it was a synapsid, closer to mammals than to dinosaurs.

Dinosaur Provincial Park, rich in Late Cretaceous fossils, is in which Canadian province?

Alberta: the park lies in the badlands along the Red Deer River near Brooks, about 200 km east of Calgary, and has yielded dozens of dinosaur species.

The giant titanosaur starring in a 2016 David Attenborough documentary was excavated in which country?

Argentina: at least six Patagotitan individuals were dug from a ranch in Chubut Province, and the cast skeleton is too long for the American Museum of Natural History's hall.

Who directed the original 1993 film Jurassic Park?

Steven Spielberg directed Jurassic Park, which was released in 1993. Based on Michael Crichton's novel, the film revolutionized visual effects and became the highest-grossing film at the time.

Which dinosaur's four tail spikes are jokingly called the 'thagomizer'?

Stegosaurus: its tail bore four long spikes; the name 'thagomizer' comes from a 1982 Gary Larson Far Side cartoon and was later adopted by paleontologists.

What evidence supports the theory that many dinosaurs had feathers?

Numerous fossils, especially from China's Liaoning Province, show remarkably preserved feather impressions in fine-grained rock. Species like Sinosauropteryx, Microraptor, and even relatives of T. Rex had various types of feathers.

What was the largest flying reptile that lived alongside dinosaurs?

Quetzalcoatlus had a wingspan of up to 10-11 meters (33-36 feet), making it the largest known flying animal ever.

How did dinosaurs reproduce?

All known dinosaurs reproduced by laying eggs. Fossilized dinosaur eggs have been found worldwide, with some even containing preserved embryos. Nests and egg clutches show that some species exhibited parental care.

What is the name of the famous T. Rex skeleton on display at the Field Museum in Chicago?

Sue: over 90% complete by bulk, found by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota in 1990 and bought at auction in 1997 for $8.36 million, then the highest price ever paid for a fossil.

Pachycephalosaurus is best known for which distinctive feature?

Thick domed skull: its skull roof was up to 22 cm thick, a dome that may have been used for head-butting rivals or for shoving at their flanks.

Which industrialist financed Dippy, the Diplodocus whose casts went to museums worldwide?

Andrew Carnegie: the original stands in his Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, the species Diplodocus carnegii bears his name, and the London cast greeted Natural History Museum visitors from 1905 to 2017.

During the Triassic, when dinosaurs first appeared, the continents formed which single landmass?

Pangaea: in the Triassic nearly all land was joined in one supercontinent, so early dinosaurs spread widely before it split into Laurasia and Gondwana during the Jurassic.

The smallest living dinosaur, the bee hummingbird, is native to which island?

Cuba: the bee hummingbird is found only on Cuba and the neighbouring Isla de la Juventud; it is the smallest known bird and feeds on nectar and insects.

Which period of the Mesozoic Era lasted the longest?

The Cretaceous period lasted approximately 79 million years (145 to 66 million years ago), making it the longest period of the Mesozoic. The Triassic lasted about 51 million years and the Jurassic about 56 million years.

The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, densest Jurassic bone bed ever found, is in which state?

Utah: the quarry near Price, designated Jurassic National Monument in 2019, is dominated by Allosaurus remains; the state also hosts the Dinosaur National Monument quarry.

Oviraptor's name means 'egg thief'. Why is that name considered misleading?

The first specimen was found on eggs assumed to belong to Protoceratops; later finds of relatives sitting on nests showed the animal was a parent, not a raider.

T. rex's forelimbs were famously tiny for its body. How many clawed digits did each hand have?

Short as they were, the arms were unusually powerful for their size, and the shoulder girdle was longer than the entire forelimb.

What is the scientific term for a fossilized dinosaur footprint?

An ichnite (also called an ichno-fossil or trace fossil) is a fossilized footprint or track. Dinosaur ichnites can reveal information about speed, gait, behavior, and whether dinosaurs traveled in herds.

Which 19th-century fossil hunter discovered several marine reptile species in England?

Mary Anning (1799-1847) discovered the first complete Ichthyosaurus skeleton at age 12 and later found the first Plesiosaurus. Working along the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, England, she made groundbreaking contributions despite facing sexism and class barriers.

What is a coprolite?

A coprolite is fossilized feces. Dinosaur coprolites are valuable to paleontologists because they reveal what dinosaurs ate. Some coprolites contain fragments of bone, plant material, and even parasites.

What adaptation allowed sauropod dinosaurs like Brachiosaurus to support their enormous weight?

Sauropods had a system of air sacs connected to hollow bones, similar to modern birds. This made their skeletons much lighter than solid bone would have been, allowing them to grow to enormous sizes while remaining mobile on land.

John Ostrom's late-1960s study of which dinosaur sparked the 'dinosaur renaissance'?

Deinonychus: its enlarged sickle claw and horizontal posture pointed to an agile, active predator, and it was the real model for Jurassic Park's raptors.

Which vast volcanic eruptions spanned the boundary that ended the dinosaurs?

Deccan Traps in India: the eruptions in western India spanned the boundary and pumped out huge volumes of gas, though the Chicxulub impact is regarded as the primary killer.

Othniel Charles Marsh's bitter rival in the 19th-century Bone Wars was which Philadelphia paleontologist?

Edward Drinker Cope: he and Marsh resorted to bribery, theft and even dynamiting fossil sites to outdo each other, yet between them named dozens of new dinosaurs.

In the Jurassic Park franchise, what fictional company cloned the dinosaurs?

InGen stands for International Genetic Technologies, which filled gaps in the dinosaur DNA with frog genes, the loophole that lets the dinosaurs breed.

Roy Chapman Andrews's 1920s Gobi expeditions made headlines with the first widely recognised fossils of what?

Dinosaur eggs: in 1923 at the Flaming Cliffs the team found nests of eggs, the first fossils recognised as dinosaur eggs; Andrews later directed the American Museum of Natural History.

Which small Chinese troodontid was fossilised curled up in a bird-like sleeping posture?

Mei long: the 2004 specimen from Liaoning lies with its head tucked under a forelimb like a roosting bird; its name is Chinese for 'sleeping dragon'.

Which feathered Liaoning dinosaur was the first non-bird dinosaur to have its life colours described from fossils?

Sinosauropteryx: in 2010 preserved pigment structures called melanosomes revealed its banded tail, and the same technique later showed Microraptor was iridescent black.

Which theropod had two prominent horns above its eyes and arms even tinier than T. Rex's?

Carnotaurus ('meat-eating bull') had two thick horns above its eyes and arms so tiny they were essentially vestigial, proportionally even shorter than T. Rex's. It was a fast-running predator from Late Cretaceous South America.

The name of the Cretaceous period comes from the Latin word for what?

Chalk: Cretaceous comes from the Latin creta, chalk, after the thick chalk beds of that age across western Europe, such as the White Cliffs of Dover.

Hadrosaurids such as Edmontosaurus are informally known by what nickname?

Duck-billed dinosaurs: their broad, flattened, duck-like snouts hid batteries of hundreds of teeth for grinding tough plants.

Maiasaura's Montana nesting sites, described in 1979, gave the first evidence that dinosaurs did what?

Care of its young was inferred from nests full of hatchlings too undeveloped to walk, so adults must have brought food, a first for dinosaurs when described in 1979.

What was the primary diet of most long-necked sauropod dinosaurs?

Herbivore is the whole group: every sauropod known ate plants, swallowing vast quantities to sustain its enormous size.

What geological era is famously known as the 'Age of Dinosaurs'?

The Mesozoic Era ran from about 252 to 66 million years ago, opening and closing with two of Earth's great mass extinctions.

A 2015 study revived Brontosaurus after decades of it being lumped into which sauropod genus?

Apatosaurus swallowed the 'thunder lizard' in 1903, but a detailed re-analysis of diplodocid skeletons in 2015 brought Brontosaurus back.

Roughly how big was the Jurassic theropod Compsognathus?

The size of a chicken or turkey: Compsognathus was about a metre long and until the 1990s was the smallest known non-bird dinosaur; the famous German specimen is thought to be a juvenile.

Iguanodon is known for a distinctive large spike on which part of its body?

The thumb spike was first put on its nose like a rhino horn; Iguanodon also had a flexible fifth finger for gathering food.

The 1980 asteroid-impact dinosaur extinction hypothesis is named after which father-and-son scientists?

The Alvarez team's key clue was a thin clay layer unusually rich in iridium, a metal far more common in asteroids than in Earth's crust.

What do paleontologists think Stegosaurus's back plates were mainly for?

Display and/or thermoregulation: the thin plates were poorly placed for defence, so they are read as visual display and perhaps radiators, their surfaces laced with blood-vessel grooves.

Which sauropod's front legs were longer than its hind legs, tilting its back upward?

Brachiosaurus: its name means 'arm lizard' because the forelimbs outstripped the hind limbs, sloping the back up toward a neck held high to browse treetops.

What was the first dinosaur to be scientifically named?

Megalosaurus got its name in 1824, eighteen years before Richard Owen coined the word 'dinosaur' in 1842.

Baryonyx, whose name means 'heavy claw', was discovered in 1983 in a clay pit in which English county?

Surrey: amateur collector William Walker found the huge claw at the Smokejacks brick pit near Ockley, and fish scales in the stomach region showed the animal ate fish.

Yutyrannus, a nine-metre tyrannosauroid, is the largest dinosaur with direct evidence of what?

Its name means 'feathered tyrant', and it suggested that even large relatives of T. rex may have carried a downy coat.

The world's first dinosaur sculptures, unveiled in 1854, stand in a park in which city?

London: the sculptures were built for the relocated Crystal Palace at Sydenham in south London under Richard Owen's direction, and are wildly inaccurate by modern standards.

Which group of flying reptiles lived alongside dinosaurs but are not technically dinosaurs themselves?

Pterosaurs were a diverse group of flying reptiles that existed during the Mesozoic Era, coexisting with dinosaurs, but they belong to a separate lineage.

Parasaurolophus is famous for what long, curved, hollow structure projecting back from its skull?

Crest: the hollow, tube-like crest may have worked as a resonating chamber, letting the duck-billed dinosaur produce low, trombone-like calls.

Which bird-like dinosaur with feathers and teeth is a classic transitional fossil?

Archaeopteryx is a famous transitional fossil from the Late Jurassic, possessing both dinosaurian features like teeth and a long bony tail, and bird-like features such as feathers and a wishbone.

Eoraptor, one of the earliest known dinosaurs, was found on which continent?

South America: Eoraptor came from Argentina's Ischigualasto Formation, and at roughly a metre long it was a lightly built runner rather than a giant.

Which dinosaur group has hollow bones, three-toed limbs and ancestrally carnivorous diets?

Theropods are a diverse group of bipedal dinosaurs characterized by hollow bones, three-toed feet with claws, and were primarily carnivorous, although some lineages evolved to be herbivorous or omnivorous.

How long was the neck of Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum, among the longest of any known dinosaur?

Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum, a sauropod from China, is estimated to have had a neck approximately 15.1 meters (49.5 feet) long, making it a contender for the longest neck of any known dinosaur.

How big was a real Velociraptor compared to its Jurassic Park portrayal?

Much smaller, closer to a turkey: the real animal was about 2 metres long but stood only half a metre tall and weighed around 15 kg; the film's raptors were modelled on the larger Deinonychus.

Which giant sauropod, among the largest land animals ever, is known only from fragmentary remains?

Argentinosaurus, meaning 'lizard from Argentina,' is a genus of giant sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period, known from fragmentary remains but estimated to be among the largest land animals ever.

What does the name Allosaurus mean?

Different lizard: Marsh coined the name in 1877 because its lightweight, concave vertebrae differed from those of any dinosaur then known.

Giganotosaurus's species name carolinii honours whom?

Ruben Carolini found the nearly 70% complete holotype in Patagonia's Candeleros Formation in 1993.

Carcharodontosaurus, the "shark-toothed lizard", was first described in 1925 from teeth found where?

Algeria: Depéret and Savornin described the teeth in 1925 as Megalosaurus saharicus, and Ernst Stromer erected the genus Carcharodontosaurus for an Egyptian skeleton in 1931.

Utahraptor was described in 1993 by which paleontologist?

James Kirkland: he, Robert Gaston and Donald Burge named Utahraptor in 1993; it is the largest known dromaeosaurid, from Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation.

The enlarged sickle claw of dromaeosaurs was carried on which toe of each foot?

Second: dromaeosaurs such as Deinonychus and Velociraptor held a retractable sickle claw on the second toe of each foot, raised clear of the ground when walking.

Besides the western United States, Stegosaurus fossils have been found in which European country?

Portugal: Stegosaurus bones from Upper Jurassic rocks near Lourinhã were reported in 2007, the first found outside North America; the name means 'roof lizard'.

Kentrosaurus, the "prickle lizard", is known only from which country's Tendaguru Formation?

Tanzania: the Tendaguru beds of what was then German East Africa yielded Kentrosaurus, which German palaeontologist Edwin Hennig named in 1915.

Styracosaurus's nose horn may have reached what length?

60 centimetres: the nose horn could reach about 60 cm long and 15 cm wide, and the frill carried four to six long spikes.

Protoceratops andrewsi was described in 1923 from fossils in which Mongolian formation?

Djadokhta: Granger and Gregory described Protoceratops andrewsi in 1923 from the Flaming Cliffs beds of the Djadokhta Formation; a second species was named from China in 2001.

Psittacosaurus, the "parrot lizard", is notable for being what?

The most species-rich non-avian dinosaur genus: around a dozen Psittacosaurus species are recognised from China, Mongolia, Russia and Thailand.

Torosaurus's name refers to what feature?

Large openings in its frill: the name means 'perforated lizard', from the big windows in its frill, not 'bull lizard'; it lived 68 to 66 million years ago.

Corythosaurus takes its name from a Greek word for what?

Helmet: korythos is Greek for a Corinthian helmet, which the tall, rounded crest on its skull was thought to resemble when the genus was named in 1914.

Iguanodon was named in which year?

1825: Gideon Mantell named Iguanodon in 1825 from teeth found in Sussex, making it the second dinosaur to receive a scientific name, after Megalosaurus.

Plateosaurus, an early sauropodomorph, lived during which period?

Late Triassic: Plateosaurus lived around 214 to 204 million years ago across Europe; its name probably means 'broad lizard', often mistranslated as 'flat lizard'.

Herrerasaurus, one of the earliest dinosaurs, is named after whom?

A rancher: Victorino Herrera, a local rancher and goatherd, found the first specimen in Argentina's Ischigualasto Formation, and Osvaldo Reig named the genus after him in 1963.

Coelophysis, an early theropod, could grow to about what length?

3 metres: Coelophysis was a slender, bipedal carnivore up to about 3 metres long, known from hundreds of Late Triassic skeletons at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.

Dilophosaurus skeletons were first discovered in 1940 in which US state?

Arizona: the first skeletons came from the Kayenta Formation on Navajo land in 1940; Samuel Welles first named them a Megalosaurus species in 1954 and erected Dilophosaurus in 1970.

Hard dinosaur eggshells, like those of birds, were made mainly of which mineral?

Calcium carbonate: rigid dinosaur eggshells, like bird eggs, were built from crystalline calcium carbonate (calcite), which is why they fossilise so readily.

Majungasaurus, an abelisaurid living until the end of the Cretaceous, is from which island?

Madagascar: Majungasaurus comes from the Maevarano Formation of north-western Madagascar, was once called Majungatholus, and had a short snout and very short forelimbs.

Acrocanthosaurus fossils range as far east as which US state?

Maryland: teeth from the Arundel Formation extend the 'high-spined lizard' east to Maryland, far from its main finds in Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming.

Suchomimus, described by Paul Sereno in 1998, has a name meaning what?

Crocodile mimic: souchos is Greek for crocodile, after its long, narrow snout; Sereno's team described it from Niger's Elrhaz Formation in 1998.

Roughly how many teeth did an adult Tyrannosaurus rex have?

About 60: an adult T. rex carried some 60 thick, serrated teeth, the largest up to 30 cm long including the root.

Gorgosaurus's name means what?

Dreadful lizard: gorgos is Greek for 'fierce' or 'dreadful'; the 8-9 metre tyrannosaurid lived in western North America 76.5 to 73 million years ago.

Tarbosaurus bataar is known from which Mongolian rock formation?

Nemegt: Tarbosaurus comes from the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia's Gobi Desert, is known from dozens of specimens including complete skulls, and its name means 'alarming lizard'.

Which sauropod is the most common dinosaur in the Morrison Formation?

Camarasaurus: hundreds of specimens, including several nearly complete skeletons, make it the most abundant sauropod in the Morrison rocks of the western United States.

What does the name Apatosaurus mean?

Deceptive lizard: Marsh chose the name in 1877 because its chevron bones resembled those of mosasaurs rather than other dinosaurs; the animal averaged 21-23 metres long.

Supersaurus was first discovered in 1972 in Colorado by whom?

Vivian Jones: she found the first bones at Colorado's Dry Mesa Quarry in 1972, and Jim Jensen named Supersaurus in 1985; at 33 metres or more it is among the longest dinosaurs known.

Alamosaurus reappeared in North America after a sauropod absence of roughly how long?

About 30 million years: sauropods vanish from North American rocks around 100 million years ago and Alamosaurus reappears about 70 million years ago, probably an immigrant from South America or Asia.

Saltasaurus was the first sauropod known to have what?

Bony armour in its skin: Saltasaurus, named in 1980, was the first sauropod found with osteoderms, armour since seen on other titanosaurs; it was small for a sauropod at about 12 metres.

Shunosaurus's name derives from an ancient name for which Chinese province?

Sichuan: 'Shu' is the ancient name of Sichuan, where students on a practice dig found the first skeleton at Dashanpu, Zigong, in 1977.

The original Massospondylus fossils were destroyed where?

London, during the Blitz: the South African bones Richard Owen named in 1854 were held at the Royal College of Surgeons' Hunterian Museum and were destroyed by bombing in 1941.

Scelidosaurus fossils come from mudstone near which Dorset village?

Charmouth: the armoured Early Jurassic dinosaur came from the Black Ven cliffs near Charmouth, and Owen's 1860s specimen was the first near-complete dinosaur skeleton ever recovered.

Leaellynasaura, found at Australia's Dinosaur Cove, was named after whom?

The discoverers' daughter: Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich named it in 1989 for their daughter Leaellyn; the genus Timimus honours their son Tim.

Muttaburrasaurus is named after a site in which Australian state?

Queensland: the type skeleton was found in 1963 by grazier Doug Langdon near Muttaburra in central Queensland and named in 1981; it is among Australia's most complete dinosaurs.

Australovenator, described in 2009, holds what distinction?

Australia's most complete predatory dinosaur: the megaraptoran nicknamed 'Banjo', from the 95-million-year-old Winton Formation in Queensland, is known from more of its skeleton than any other Australian theropod.

Deinocheirus was known only from a pair of giant arms for how long?

Almost fifty years: the arms were found in 1965, and two more complete specimens described in 2014 revealed a humpbacked, duck-billed ornithomimosaur.

Gigantoraptor was the largest known member of which dinosaur group?

Oviraptorosaurs: Gigantoraptor, about 8 metres long, dwarfs every other oviraptorosaur; it was found in Inner Mongolia's Iren Dabasu Formation in 2005 and named in 2007.

Citipati's name means what?

Funeral pyre lord: Citipati is named for the Tibetan Buddhist 'lords of the cemetery', often shown as dancing skeletons; Ukhaa Tolgod specimens include individuals brooding their nests.

Mononykus's tiny single-clawed forelimbs were probably used for what?

Foraging in termite mounds: the stout single claw looks built for hook-and-pull digging into insect nests, like an anteater's; the metre-long Mongolian theropod weighed only about 3.5 kg.

Anchiornis, a four-winged paravian from Liaoning, has a species name honouring which Victorian scientist?

Thomas Henry Huxley: the species name huxleyi honours 'Darwin's bulldog', who first argued in the 1860s that birds descend from dinosaurs; hundreds of specimens come from Liaoning's Tiaojishan Formation.

What does the name Caudipteryx mean?

Tail feather: cauda (tail) plus pteryx (feather) names the fan of long feathers on its tail; the Chinese oviraptorosaur was so bird-like that some scientists suggested it was a bird.

Yi qi used an elongated third finger to support what?

A membranous gliding wing: a rod-like wrist bone and the long third finger stretched a bat-like skin membrane; its name means 'strange wing', and the single specimen came from Hebei, China.

The superbly preserved nodosaur Borealopelta was found in what kind of site in Alberta?

An oil sands mine: the nodosaur turned up in 2011 at Suncor's Millennium Mine near Fort McMurray, keeping its armour, keratin sheaths and even skin in life position.

Zuul crurivastator, an ankylosaur named after a Ghostbusters demon, comes from which state?

Montana: Zuul came from the Judith River Formation in northern Montana and was the first ankylosaurin known from a complete skull and tail club.

Deinonychus and its likely prey Tenontosaurus come from which Early Cretaceous rock formation?

Cloverly: the Cloverly Formation of Montana and Wyoming yielded Ostrom's Deinonychus alongside Tenontosaurus, whose bones are often found with shed Deinonychus teeth.

Dracorex and Stygimoloch are widely regarded as juvenile growth stages of which dinosaur?

Pachycephalosaurus: Horner and Goodwin argued in 2009 that the spiky, flat-headed Dracorex and Stygimoloch are younger growth stages of Pachycephalosaurus, their domes rising with age.

Kosmoceratops was discovered in which US national monument?

Grand Staircase-Escalante: Kosmoceratops came from the Kaiparowits Formation inside the Utah monument in 2007; its name means 'ornate horned face' and the species honours finder Scott Richardson.

Concavenator, a humped carcharodontosaurian described in 2010, was found in which country?

Spain: Concavenator came from the Las Hoyas fossil site near Cuenca, and it had unusually tall spines over its hips that formed a hump.

Henry Fairfield Osborn named which dinosaur in 1905?

Tyrannosaurus rex: Osborn, of the American Museum of Natural History, named it in 1905 from a partial skeleton dug in Montana in 1902; the three distractors were named by Marsh in the 1870s and 1880s.

Which paleontologist named Brachiosaurus in 1903 from bones found near Grand Junction, Colorado?

Elmer Riggs: the Field Museum's Riggs named Brachiosaurus altithorax in 1903 from a partial skeleton his crew had dug near Grand Junction in 1900.

Cope's famous error with Elasmosaurus was placing the skull where?

On the end of the tail: Cope mounted the skull at the end of the tail, mistaking the long neck for the tail; Marsh mocked the error, fuelling their Bone Wars rivalry.

The hadrosaur 'mummy' nicknamed Dakota, found in North Dakota in 1999, belongs to which genus?

Edmontosaurus: the Edmontosaurus annectens specimen found by Tyler Lyson in 1999 preserved skin and tendons across much of its body, and was announced in 2007.

Which dinosaur did Wyoming adopt as its official state dinosaur in 1994?

Triceratops: Wyoming named it state dinosaur in 1994; its Lance Formation has produced many Triceratops skulls, and the state fossil is the fish Knightia.

The first scientifically documented dinosaur egg fossils, found in France in 1859, were mistaken for what?

Giant bird eggs: Jean-Jacques Pouech, a priest, found the eggshell fragments in the Pyrenean foothills in 1859 and took them for the eggs of enormous birds.

Lufengosaurus, the first dinosaur skeleton mounted in China, came from which province?

Yunnan: C. C. Young described Lufengosaurus from Lufeng County in 1941, and its skeleton became the first dinosaur mounted in China.

The K-Pg extinction killed roughly what share of plant and animal species on Earth?

Three-quarters: about 75% of plant and animal species vanished; most tetrapods over 25 kilograms died, apart from some ectotherms such as sea turtles and crocodilians.

Which marine group was completely wiped out in the Triassic-Jurassic extinction?

Conodonts: the eel-like conodonts, known mainly from their tooth-like elements, vanished in the extinction 201.4 million years ago that cleared the way for dinosaurs to dominate the Jurassic.

The Morrison Formation, North America's richest dinosaur source, is centred in Colorado and which state?

Wyoming: the formation is centred on Wyoming and Colorado, with outcrops from Montana to New Mexico; most fossils lie in green siltstone beds left by Jurassic rivers and floodplains.

The Jehol Biota of north-eastern China, source of many feathered dinosaurs, dates to which period?

Early Cretaceous: the Yixian and Jiufotang formations of the Jehol Biota are about 131 to 120 million years old, their fine volcanic ash beds preserving Sinosauropteryx, Microraptor and Yutyrannus.

The Solnhofen Limestone, source of Archaeopteryx, lies in which German state?

Bavaria: the Solnhofen quarries lie roughly halfway between Nuremberg and Munich, and their fine lagoon limestone preserves even soft-bodied sea jellies.

The Kem Kem beds, rich in predatory dinosaurs, are in which country?

Morocco: the Kem Kem beds in south-eastern Morocco, near the Algerian border, yield Spinosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus and other Cenomanian predators in unusual abundance.

Who sculpted the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs unveiled in 1854?

Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins: he modelled the concrete beasts under Richard Owen's scientific direction, and hosted a famous 1853 New Year's Eve dinner inside the Iguanodon mould.

In 1878, dozens of Iguanodon skeletons turned up in which kind of site at Bernissart, Belgium?

A coal mine: miners at the Bernissart colliery struck the bones 322 metres underground in 1878, and the skeletons were later mounted in Brussels' natural history museum.

Gideon Mantell, who discovered Iguanodon's teeth in 1822, practised what profession?

Obstetrician: born in Lewes, Sussex, the shoemaker's son practised as a surgeon and obstetrician while building the fossil collection that produced Iguanodon.

A 2014 reconstruction of Spinosaurus argued it was the first known dinosaur to be what?

Semi-aquatic: Nizar Ibrahim's 2014 study of new Moroccan bones found short hind legs and dense limb bones, evidence for a dinosaur that spent much of its time in water.

Which fossil hunter, nicknamed "Mr. Bones", found the first documented Tyrannosaurus remains?

Born in Carbondale, Kansas, in 1873, he became one of the most famous fossil hunters of his era.

Paleontologist Jack Horner served as technical adviser on which film franchise?

Jurassic Park: Horner advised Spielberg on the 1993 film and its sequels, and the character Alan Grant was partly modelled on him.

Robert Bakker's 1975 article "Dinosaur Renaissance" appeared in which magazine?

Scientific American: Bakker's April 1975 cover article argued, with his mentor John Ostrom, that dinosaurs were active, warm-blooded animals.

Which Belgian palaeontologist proposed that evolution is not reversible?

Louis Dollo: the Brussels palaeontologist who mounted the Bernissart Iguanodons framed Dollo's law in 1893, holding that an organism cannot return exactly to an ancestral state.

Who narrated the original 1999 BBC series Walking with Dinosaurs?

Kenneth Branagh: he narrated the six-part BBC series created by Tim Haines in 1999, while Avery Brooks voiced the American edition.

Who directed the original 1988 film The Land Before Time?

Don Bluth: the former Disney animator directed the 1988 film, with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas as executive producers; thirteen direct-to-video sequels followed.

Who directed the 2015 film Jurassic World?

Colin Trevorrow: he directed the 2015 film, the fourth in the franchise, arriving fourteen years after Jurassic Park III; J. A. Bayona took the 2018 sequel.

Which character leads the expedition in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World?

Professor Challenger: the belligerent zoologist George Edward Challenger leads the 1912 novel's expedition to a dinosaur-filled Amazon plateau, narrated by journalist Edward Malone.

Who served as showrunner on Apple TV's Prehistoric Planet?

Jon Favreau: the Iron Man director was showrunner and executive producer of the 2022 BBC Studios series, narrated by David Attenborough and set 66 million years ago.

Sinclair Oil adopted its green Brontosaurus mascot in which year?

1930: Sinclair adopted the Brontosaurus in 1930 advertising to suggest the great age of the crude oil in its products; a 'Dino' balloon later joined the Macy's Thanksgiving parade.

Which is the earliest known ceratopsian, from the Late Jurassic of Asia?

Yinlong: named in 2006 from the Oxfordian Shishugou Formation of Xinjiang, Yinlong downsi is about 160 million years old, older than Chaoyangsaurus from the Tuchengzi beds.

What does the name Ornithischia mean?

Bird-hipped: ornithischians had a backward-pointing pubis like a bird's, yet birds themselves descend from the lizard-hipped theropods; the group was mostly herbivorous.

Patagotitan is estimated at about how long?

37 metres: the 2017 description estimated about 37 metres and 69 tonnes, rivalling Argentinosaurus and Puertasaurus among the largest land animals ever.

Euoplocephalus, a well-known ankylosaurid, even had bony plates protecting what?

Its eyelids: Euoplocephalus carried bony palpebral plates that could shutter its eyes, on top of armour covering its back and a heavy tail club.

Most popular depictions of Brachiosaurus are actually based on which Tanzanian genus?

Giraffatitan: Werner Janensch described the Tendaguru skeleton in 1914 as Brachiosaurus brancai; the Berlin mount and most artwork follow it, and Michael Taylor separated the genus in 2009.

What happened to the original Spinosaurus fossils described by Ernst Stromer in 1915?

They were destroyed in World War II: Stromer's Egyptian bones, found in 1912, burned in the 1944 Allied bombing of Munich; new Spinosaurus material from Morocco's Kem Kem beds only emerged in the 21st century.

Which Morrison predator's tail vertebra bears a wound matching a Stegosaurus tail spike?

Allosaurus: an Allosaurus tail vertebra shows a puncture that fits a Stegosaurus tail spike, and a Stegosaurus neck plate carries a U-shaped Allosaurus bite.

In the 'Fighting Dinosaurs' fossil, a Velociraptor is locked in combat with what?

Protoceratops: the Velociraptor's sickle claw lies at the Protoceratops's throat; found by a Polish-Mongolian team in 1971, the pair were probably buried by a collapsing sand dune.