Biology Trivia Questions, From Cells to Strange but True

Six rounds of living things, from the mitochondrion to a marsupial that leaves cube-shaped droppings.

Question 1 of 177

An adult insect walks on how many legs?

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Biology Trivia Questions, From Cells to Strange but True: how it works

Which sea animal has three hearts, and which base is the fixed partner of adenine? These 177 biology trivia questions and answers run in six rounds, from cells to strange but true. Tap a choice, press Check answer, and read why.

Pick a round, then a level

Set Topic to one of six rounds: Cells and genetics, Plants, Animals, Ecology and habitats, Evolution and classification or Strange but true. Show only narrows the run to General, the 97 a pub table can answer, or High school, the 80 that use classroom words such as codon, trophic level and homologous structures.

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Host a round shows each question large, holds the answer until you press Show the answer, and tallies two to six teams. For paper, Print question sheet lays out the next 20 questions of the chosen round, and Print answer key adds the reasons.

Tips
  • For funny biology questions and answers, start with Strange but true: the hagfish that knots itself, the hippo that makes its own sunscreen.
  • Revising alone? Exam mode draws 20 questions and marks them together at the end, and Missed keeps the ones to go over.
  • Read the reason aloud. The giraffe answer lands better once the table hears that each neck bone is over 28 cm long.

Questions and answers

Are these trivia questions biology teachers can use in class?

Yes. The High school tag marks 80 questions in the language of a classroom course: meiosis, xylem and phloem, carrying capacity, the three domains of life. The host view puts one question on the projector at a time and keeps the team scores.

Why is there no round on the human body?

Human anatomy is kept out on purpose so that it can have a pack of its own. Nothing here asks about bones, organs or blood groups. The six rounds stay with cells, plants, animals, habitats, evolution and oddities of nature.

What is in the strange but true round?

Forty oddities that are real: the jellyfish that can return to its young stage, the fungus that steers ants, the beetle that finds its way by the Milky Way, the clam that lived 507 years. Each reason gives the detail that makes it believable.

How were the answers checked?

Each answer was read in the Wikipedia article linked under its question on September 19, 2026, along with every fact in the reason. Disputed records are left out or given as a range, such as 272 to 510 years for the Greenland shark.

All 177 questions

Cells and genetics 27

  • A cell copies its chromosomes and divides by mitosis. How do the new cells compare with the old one? Wikipedia: Mitosis
  • A gene for flower color may come in a purple version and a white version. What are such versions of one gene called? Wikipedia: Allele
  • Adenine is one of the four bases of DNA. Which base is its fixed partner on the opposite strand? Wikipedia: DNA
  • Bacteria and archaea are single-celled and have no nucleus. What is the name for this kind of organism? Wikipedia: Cell (biology); Wikipedia: Prokaryote
  • Barbara McClintock won a Nobel Prize in 1983 for finding jumping genes, stretches of DNA that move around. Which crop plant did she study? Wikipedia: Barbara McClintock; Wikipedia: Transposable element
  • The cell walls of fungi are strengthened by which substance, also found in the outer skeletons of insects? Wikipedia: Chitin
  • Chloroplasts are thought to descend from which kind of organism, swallowed long ago by an early eukaryotic cell? Wikipedia: Chloroplast
  • Dolly, born in Scotland in 1996, was the first mammal cloned from an adult body cell. What kind of animal was she? Wikipedia: Dolly (sheep)
  • The Golgi apparatus packages proteins for sending around and out of the cell. What is it named after? Wikipedia: Golgi apparatus
  • How many characteristics of the pea plant, such as plant height and seed color, did Mendel follow in his crosses? Wikipedia: Gregor Mendel
  • In a plant or animal cell, which membrane-bound organelle holds almost all of the DNA? Wikipedia: Cell nucleus
  • In his 1665 book Micrographia, who gave the cell its name after looking at a thin slice of cork? Wikipedia: Cell (biology)
  • In the genetic code, how many nucleotides in a row make one codon, the unit that stands for a single amino acid? Wikipedia: Genetic code
  • Mendel crossed true-breeding yellow and green peas, then bred the offspring. In what ratio did yellow and green seeds appear in that next generation? Wikipedia: Gregor Mendel
  • The molecule that carries the genetic instructions of living things is known by three letters. What is DNA short for? Wikipedia: DNA
  • Photo 51, an X-ray image made in 1952, was a key clue to the structure of what? Wikipedia: Photo 51
  • RNA uses three of the same bases as DNA. Which base does it use in place of thymine? Wikipedia: RNA
  • What is the name for the movement of water across a selectively permeable membrane, toward the side with more dissolved material? Wikipedia: Osmosis
  • What is the name for the step in which a stretch of DNA is copied into RNA? Wikipedia: Transcription (biology); Wikipedia: Ribosome
  • What name is given to the twisted-ladder shape of a DNA molecule? Wikipedia: DNA
  • Which friar grew pea plants in a monastery garden in Brno and became known as the founder of genetics? Wikipedia: Gregor Mendel
  • Which kind of cell division halves the chromosome number to make gametes such as eggs and sperm? Wikipedia: Meiosis
  • Which organelle, nicknamed the powerhouse of the cell, makes most of the ATP a cell runs on? Wikipedia: Mitochondrion
  • Which small insect, often seen circling ripe fruit, has been a standard animal of genetics labs for more than a century? Wikipedia: Drosophila melanogaster
Show all 177 questions (153 more)

Cells and genetics, continued

  • Which substance, absent from plants and animals, makes up the cell wall of most bacteria? Wikipedia: Cell wall
  • Which tiny particles, found in every living cell, build proteins by reading messenger RNA? Wikipedia: Ribosome
  • Which tough carbohydrate is a main building material of the cell walls of land plants? Wikipedia: Cell wall

Plants 32

  • A bean seedling comes up with two fleshy seed leaves, and a corn seedling with one. What is the botanical name for a seed leaf? Wikipedia: Cotyledon
  • A potato is a swollen store of starch. Which part of the plant is it? Wikipedia: Tuber
  • A seedling on a windowsill bends toward the glass. What is this growth toward light called? Wikipedia: Phototropism
  • Bamboo includes some of the fastest-growing plants in the world. To which plant family does it belong? Wikipedia: Bamboo
  • By which process do green plants turn light, water and carbon dioxide into sugar? Wikipedia: Photosynthesis
  • Conifers, cycads and ginkgo bear seeds that are not enclosed in a fruit. What is this group of plants called? Wikipedia: Gymnosperm
  • Ferns have no flowers and no seeds. How do they reproduce? Wikipedia: Fern
  • The floating leaves of the giant water lily of South America, Victoria amazonica, can grow to about what width? Wikipedia: Victoria amazonica
  • How do the tropical pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes deal with the insects that fall into their traps? Wikipedia: Nepenthes
  • In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure that forms from which part of a flower? Wikipedia: Fruit
  • The largest known single-stem tree on Earth by volume stands in California and is named General Sherman. What species is it? Wikipedia: General Sherman (tree)
  • Mosses have no xylem or phloem. What is the term for plants like these? Wikipedia: Moss
  • On which part of a flower does pollen have to land for pollination to happen? Wikipedia: Stigma (botany)
  • Peas, beans and clover carry bacteria in lumps on their roots. What do these bacteria supply to the plant? Wikipedia: Rhizobia
  • The saguaro is the giant cactus whose arms curve upward. Which desert is its natural home? Wikipedia: Saguaro
  • The titan arum of Sumatra is better known as the corpse flower. How did it earn that name? Wikipedia: Amorphophallus titanum
  • The tomato belongs to the same plant family as the potato, tobacco and the chili pepper. What is the family commonly called? Wikipedia: Tomato
  • Vanilla flavoring comes from the seed pods of which kind of plant? Wikipedia: Vanilla
  • Welwitschia, a desert plant of southwestern Africa that can live for thousands of years, grows how many leaves in its whole life? Wikipedia: Welwitschia
  • What are the tiny pores in a leaf, each opened and closed by a pair of guard cells? Wikipedia: Stoma
  • What do gardeners call a plant, such as the pea, that goes from seed to seed within one growing season and then dies? Wikipedia: Annual plant
  • What is the botanical name for the flowering plants, by far the most diverse group of land plants? Wikipedia: Flowering plant
  • What is the loss of water vapor from the leaves, stems and flowers of a plant called? Wikipedia: Transpiration
  • What is the powdery substance that carries the male cells of a flower from the anther of one bloom to the stigma of another? Wikipedia: Pollen
  • What sugary liquid do flowers make to draw in bees, butterflies and hummingbirds? Wikipedia: Nectar
  • What word describes trees such as oaks and maples that drop all their leaves for part of the year? Wikipedia: Deciduous
  • Which class of plant hormone makes the cells on the shaded side of a stem grow faster, so that the stem bends toward the light? Wikipedia: Auxin
  • Which green pigment in leaves captures the light that plants use to make food? Wikipedia: Chlorophyll
  • Which part of a flower makes the pollen? Wikipedia: Stamen
  • Which plant tissue carries the sugars made in the leaves to the rest of the plant? Wikipedia: Phloem
  • Which plant tissue carries water and dissolved minerals up from the roots? Wikipedia: Xylem
  • Which tough polymer stiffens the cell walls of wood and bark and does not rot easily? Wikipedia: Lignin

Animals 25

  • A female emperor penguin lays one egg and goes back to sea to feed. Who keeps the egg warm for the next two months? Wikipedia: Emperor penguin
  • A honey bee that has found flowers dances a figure of eight in the hive. What is this dance called? Wikipedia: Waggle dance
  • An adult insect walks on how many legs? Wikipedia: Insect
  • Besides some bats, which group of sea mammals finds its way and its prey by echolocation? Wikipedia: Animal echolocation
  • The fastest animal on land is a cat with a coat of solid black spots. Which one? Wikipedia: Cheetah
  • The giant panda belongs to the bear family, yet its diet is almost entirely which plant? Wikipedia: Giant panda
  • How many vertebrae are there in the long neck of a giraffe? Wikipedia: Giraffe
  • Insects, spiders and crabs all have jointed legs and a hard outer skeleton. To which phylum, the largest in the animal kingdom, do they belong? Wikipedia: Arthropod; Wikipedia: Mollusca
  • The Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard. In which country does it live wild? Wikipedia: Komodo dragon
  • The largest animal known to have ever lived is a sea mammal that is still alive today. Which one? Wikipedia: Blue whale
  • The largest living fish feeds by filtering plankton from the water. Which fish is it? Wikipedia: Whale shark
  • Of all the animals that live on land today, which is the largest? Wikipedia: African bush elephant
  • The platypus and the echidnas are the only living mammals that lay eggs. What is their group called? Wikipedia: Monotreme
  • The skeleton of a shark contains no bone. What is it made of instead? Wikipedia: Shark
  • Snails, clams and octopuses belong to which phylum of soft-bodied animals? Wikipedia: Mollusca
  • Spiders have eight legs and spin silk. To which class of animals do they belong? Wikipedia: Spider
  • What is the larval stage of a frog or toad called? Wikipedia: Tadpole
  • What is the pupa of a butterfly called? Wikipedia: Metamorphosis
  • What is the scientific term for a cold-blooded animal, one that relies mostly on outside heat to control its body temperature? Wikipedia: Ectotherm
  • Which animal holds the title of largest living reptile? Wikipedia: Saltwater crocodile
  • Which are the only mammals capable of true, sustained flight? Wikipedia: Bat
  • Which bird of prey, the fastest known animal, reaches its top speed in a hunting dive called a stoop? Wikipedia: Peregrine falcon
  • Which family of birds, the smallest in the world, hover at flowers on wings that can beat up to 99 times a second? Wikipedia: Hummingbird
  • Which flightless bird is the largest living bird and lays the largest eggs of any living land animal? Wikipedia: Ostrich
  • Which striped cat is the largest living member of the cat family? Wikipedia: Felidae; Wikipedia: Tiger

Ecology and habitats 28

  • A bleached coral has turned white. What has it lost? Wikipedia: Coral bleaching
  • A lichen is not one organism. It is a partnership between a fungus and what? Wikipedia: Lichen; Wikipedia: Pioneer species
  • An ecosystem can only keep so many animals of one species going over time. What is that upper limit called? Wikipedia: Carrying capacity
  • As a rule of thumb, about how much of the energy at one level of a food chain ends up as living material at the next level? Wikipedia: Ecological efficiency
  • Bees feed on nectar and carry pollen between flowers, so both sides gain. What is this kind of partnership between species called? Wikipedia: Mutualism (biology)
  • The dodo, a flightless bird that died out in the 1600s, lived only on which island? Wikipedia: Dodo
  • Earthworms feed on decaying plant and animal matter. What is the term for an animal that feeds this way? Wikipedia: Detritivore
  • Gray wolves were brought back to which American national park in 1995, after the last ones there were killed in 1926? Wikipedia: History of wolves in Yellowstone
  • In a food chain, what name is given to organisms such as land plants and algae that make their own food? Wikipedia: Autotroph
  • In which cold biome do frigid temperatures and short growing seasons keep trees from growing? Wikipedia: Tundra
  • The largest coral reef system in the world lies off the coast of which Australian state? Wikipedia: Great Barrier Reef
  • Martha, who died at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914, is thought to have been the last of which bird? Wikipedia: Passenger pigeon
  • On the Pacific coast, which furry sea mammal protects kelp forests by eating sea urchins? Wikipedia: Sea otter
  • One species gains, and the other is left neither better nor worse off. What do ecologists call this relationship? Wikipedia: Commensalism
  • The taiga is the largest land biome in the world. What mostly grows there? Wikipedia: Taiga
  • To count as permafrost, ground has to stay below freezing for at least how long? Wikipedia: Permafrost
  • What is an animal called if it can eat and live on both plants and animals? Wikipedia: Omnivore; Wikipedia: Herbivore
  • What is an introduced species called when it harms its new environment, as kudzu has in the American South? Wikipedia: Invasive species
  • What is the name for a grassy landscape where the trees stand so far apart that their crowns never close overhead? Wikipedia: Savanna
  • What is the name for a partly enclosed stretch of coast where a river meets the sea and the water is brackish? Wikipedia: Estuary
  • What is the name for a predator, such as a lion or an orca, that sits at the top of a food chain? Wikipedia: Apex predator
  • What is the term for the build-up of nutrients in a lake or river, which can set off harmful blooms of algae? Wikipedia: Eutrophication
  • What is the term for the position an organism holds in a food web, counted in steps from the producers? Wikipedia: Trophic level
  • What single word names the worldwide sum of all ecosystems, the zone of life on Earth? Wikipedia: Biosphere
  • Which international body has kept the Red List of Threatened Species since 1964? Wikipedia: IUCN Red List
  • Which organisms, such as fungi and bacteria, break down dead plants and animals and return their nutrients to the environment? Wikipedia: Decomposer
  • Which rainforest, spread across nine nations of South America, is the largest tropical rainforest on Earth? Wikipedia: Amazon rainforest
  • Which shrubs and trees grow in salt water along tropical coasts, in the zone between the tides? Wikipedia: Mangrove

Evolution and classification 25

  • About how long ago did the mass extinction that wiped out all the dinosaurs except the birds take place? Wikipedia: Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
  • According to the present scientific consensus, birds are living members of which group of animals? Wikipedia: Origin of birds
  • Archaeopteryx, a feathered fossil from the Late Jurassic, is a famous link between which two groups? Wikipedia: Archaeopteryx
  • Carl Woese and his colleagues proposed in 1990 that all cellular life falls into three domains. Bacteria and Eukarya are two. What is the third? Wikipedia: Three-domain system
  • During the Industrial Revolution in England, dark forms of which insect became common as air pollution spread? Wikipedia: Peppered moth evolution
  • Fungi were once studied as a branch of botany. Genetically, which group are they now known to be closer to? Wikipedia: Fungus
  • The hind limbs of whales and snakes have lost their old function. What is the word for such leftover structures? Wikipedia: Vestigiality
  • In the ladder of classification, which rank sits just above species and just below family? Wikipedia: Genus; Wikipedia: Taxonomic rank
  • Mary Anning found the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton at the age of twelve. In which English seaside town did she collect her fossils? Wikipedia: Mary Anning
  • Most molecular evidence points to which land animals as the closest living relatives of whales? Wikipedia: Cetacea
  • Sharks and dolphins have similar streamlined bodies, yet one is a fish and the other a mammal. What is the name for the separate evolution of similar features? Wikipedia: Convergent evolution
  • The small birds known as Darwin's finches, famous for their different beaks, live on which group of islands? Wikipedia: Darwin's finches
  • Stromatolites, some about 3.4 billion years old, are layered rocks built up mainly by which microorganisms? Wikipedia: Stromatolite
  • Tiktaalik, a Devonian fossil found in Arctic Canada, stands between which two groups of animals? Wikipedia: Tiktaalik
  • Trilobites are among the best-known fossils. What kind of animal were they? Wikipedia: Trilobite
  • What does the name Tyrannosaurus rex mean? Wikipedia: Tyrannosaurus
  • What is it called when people choose which animals or plants get to breed in order to bring out traits they want? Wikipedia: Selective breeding
  • What is the term for the evolutionary process by which populations become distinct species? Wikipedia: Speciation
  • What is the two-part system of scientific names, such as Canis familiaris for the dog, that Linnaeus made standard? Wikipedia: Carl Linnaeus; Wikipedia: Dog
  • What name is given to the burst of complex life, beginning about 538.8 million years ago, in which nearly every animal phylum first shows up in the fossil record? Wikipedia: Cambrian explosion
  • Which book of 1859 set out the theory of evolution by natural selection? Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
  • Which French zoologist gave his name to the idea that traits an animal acquires in its lifetime are passed to its young, as with a giraffe stretching its neck? Wikipedia: Lamarckism
  • Which mass extinction, the most severe known, is nicknamed the Great Dying? Wikipedia: Permian–Triassic extinction event
  • Who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest"? Wikipedia: Survival of the fittest
  • The wing of a bat, the flipper of a whale and the foreleg of a horse are built from the same set of bones. What are such structures called? Wikipedia: Homology (biology)

Strange but true 40

  • A litter of the nine-banded armadillo is made up of how many identical young? Wikipedia: Nine-banded armadillo
  • The archerfish hunts insects that sit on leaves above the surface. What is its trick? Wikipedia: Archerfish
  • The axolotl, a Mexican salamander, is studied in laboratories for which unusual ability? Wikipedia: Axolotl
  • Cube-shaped droppings are the calling card of which Australian marsupial? Wikipedia: Wombat
  • The electric eel can deliver a shock of up to 860 volts. What is odd about its name? Wikipedia: Electric eel
  • The eyes of an owl are fixed in their sockets, so it has to turn its whole head to look around. How far can it turn? Wikipedia: Owl
  • The hagfish escapes predators by releasing huge amounts of slime. How does it then wipe the slime off its own body? Wikipedia: Hagfish
  • Hippos ooze a red fluid sometimes called "blood sweat". What is it really? Wikipedia: Hippopotamus
  • Horseshoe crabs have bright blue blood and are not really crabs. Which animals are they more closely related to? Wikipedia: Horseshoe crab
  • How does the bombardier beetle defend itself when disturbed? Wikipedia: Bombardier beetle
  • The kiwi of New Zealand lays an egg that is remarkable for what reason? Wikipedia: Kiwi (bird)
  • Koalas live on eucalyptus leaves, a diet low in energy. Up to how many hours a day do they sleep? Wikipedia: Koala
  • Leafcutter ants do not eat the leaves they carry home. What do they do with them? Wikipedia: Leafcutter ant
  • The long spiral tusk of a male narwhal is really what? Wikipedia: Narwhal
  • The male platypus is one of the few venomous mammals. Where does it carry its venom? Wikipedia: Platypus
  • Ming, the oldest individual animal ever discovered, was 507 years old when it was dredged up off Iceland in 2006. What kind of animal was it? Wikipedia: Ming (clam)
  • The naked mole-rat is one of only two mammals known to be eusocial, living in a colony where a queen does the breeding. Which insects are best known for the same way of life? Wikipedia: Naked mole-rat; Wikipedia: Eusociality
  • On a moonless night, one African dung beetle keeps its ball rolling in a straight line by steering with what? Wikipedia: Dung beetle
  • Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is a fungus with a horror-film nickname. What does it do? Wikipedia: Ophiocordyceps unilateralis
  • Pando, in Utah, looks like a forest of about 47,000 trees but is really one organism joined at the roots. What kind of tree is it? Wikipedia: Pando (tree)
  • People often say a cow has four stomachs. What does it really have? Wikipedia: Cattle
  • Physarum polycephalum has no brain, yet it can find the shortest path through a maze. What is it? Wikipedia: Physarum polycephalum
  • Pistol shrimp stun their prey with a snap of one oversized claw. What does the snap create in the water? Wikipedia: Alpheidae
  • Planarian flatworms have been called "immortal under the edge of a knife". Why? Wikipedia: Planarian
  • Sea cucumbers breathe in a way few animals do. Where do they draw in the water that they take oxygen from? Wikipedia: Sea cucumber
  • Several kinds of starfish have a feeding habit that sounds like science fiction. What do they do? Wikipedia: Starfish
  • The small jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii is known as the immortal jellyfish. What can it do that earns the name? Wikipedia: Turritopsis dohrnii
  • Some horned lizards of North America have a startling defense. What can they squirt from the corners of their eyes? Wikipedia: Horned lizard
  • The teeth of which seashore snail have been measured as the strongest biological material, ahead of spider silk? Wikipedia: Limpet
  • To a botanist, which of these fruits counts as a berry? Wikipedia: Banana; Wikipedia: Berry (botany)
  • What color is the skin under the fur of a polar bear? Wikipedia: Polar bear
  • What does Mimosa pudica, often called the sensitive plant, do when it is touched? Wikipedia: Mimosa pudica
  • What grows in the grooved hair of a sloth and helps to hide it among the trees? Wikipedia: Sloth
  • What is unusual about the eyes of a chameleon? Wikipedia: Chameleon
  • Which Australian bird has been recorded mimicking chainsaws, car alarms and camera shutters? Wikipedia: Lyrebird
  • Which sea animal has three hearts? Wikipedia: Octopus
  • Which slow-swimming shark of cold northern seas has the longest lifespan of any known vertebrate? Wikipedia: Greenland shark
  • Why are flamingos pink? Wikipedia: Flamingo
  • Why do glass frogs have that name? Wikipedia: Glass frog
  • The wood frog of North America can survive a winter with no detectable heartbeat or breathing. What is happening to it? Wikipedia: Wood frog

How this list was compiled: Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Every question, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. Each answer was checked on 2026-09-19 against the page named and linked beside the question: the text of the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) was fetched that day, and the sentence that states the fact was read before the question was kept. Every extra claim in an explanation was checked the same way. The human body is left out on purpose; it has its own page. Also left out: living scientists, records that change from year to year, and figures the sources disagree on. Where a record is an estimate, such as the age of the Greenland shark, the question gives the range. Levels are our estimate: General is pub-quiz knowledge, and High school is the vocabulary of a classroom biology course. Licence: own work