This dinosaur quiz is built on current science, so forget the scaly, oversized raptors of the movies. You'll dig into what the word dinosaur really means, where famous fossils were found, an Australian giant from Queensland and the asteroid that ended the age of dinosaurs. There's even a cartoonist who gave scientists a new word, so expect a few surprises.
Almost everything we know about dinosaurs comes from fossils: bones, teeth, footprints, eggs and even skin impressions preserved in rock. Paleontologists piece these clues together to work out how big an animal was, what it ate and how it moved. New finds keep changing the picture, which is why dinosaur science still feels so alive.
The American West played a huge role in the story. In the late 1800s, rival paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh raced to dig up and name as many new species as they could, a feud so bitter it became known as the Bone Wars. Much later, in 1990, fossil hunter Sue Hendrickson found one of the most complete T. rex skeletons ever unearthed in South Dakota. Nicknamed Sue, it sold at auction in 1997 for about $8.4 million and is now at Chicago's Field Museum.
When you tackle dinosaur trivia, remember that the age of dinosaurs lasted well over 100 million years, so animals we lump together often never met. Thinking in terms of deep time, and where in the world fossils were found, will help you sort out tricky answers.