About how long ago did the Mesozoic Era, the age of dinosaurs, begin?Answer: 252 million years ago. Source: Wikipedia: Mesozoic
After which event did dinosaurs become the dominant animals on land?Answer: The extinction that closed the Triassic. Source: Wikipedia: Dinosaur
The age of dinosaurs has three periods. Which came first?Answer: The Triassic. Source: Wikipedia: Triassic
By the start of the Jurassic the supercontinent had begun to split in two. Gondwana was the southern part. What was the northern part?Answer: Laurasia. Source: Wikipedia: Jurassic
The Cretaceous takes its name from the Latin word for which rock?Answer: Chalk. Source: Wikipedia: Cretaceous
Eoraptor is one of the earliest dinosaurs known. In which country of today were its bones found?Answer: Argentina. Source: Wikipedia: Eoraptor
For most of the 20th century, how did scientists picture dinosaurs?Answer: As slow and cold-blooded. Source: Wikipedia: Dinosaur
Geologists shorten Cretaceous to one letter. Which letter?Answer: K. Source: Wikipedia: Cretaceous
How did all dinosaurs hold their legs?Answer: Straight under the body. Source: Wikipedia: Dinosaur
How did baby dinosaurs come into the world?Answer: They hatched from eggs. Source: Wikipedia: Dinosaur
The Jurassic is named after what?Answer: The Jura Mountains. Source: Wikipedia: Jurassic
On how many of the continents have dinosaurs been found?Answer: All of them. Source: Wikipedia: Dinosaur
What was missing from the North and South Poles in the Jurassic?Answer: Ice caps. Source: Wikipedia: Jurassic
Which was the last and longest period of the age of dinosaurs?Answer: The Cretaceous. Source: Wikipedia: Cretaceous
Meat-eaters 15
A study of which dinosaur in the late 1960s helped change the picture of dinosaurs from plodding giants to quick, active animals?Answer: Deinonychus. Source: Wikipedia: Deinonychus
Deinonychus means terrible claw. Where was the claw?Answer: On each hind foot's second toe. Source: Wikipedia: Deinonychus
How do we know for certain what little Compsognathus ate?Answer: Lizards lie in the bellies of both fossils. Source: Wikipedia: Compsognathus
How many clawed fingers did Tyrannosaurus have on each hand?Answer: Two. Source: Wikipedia: Tyrannosaurus
In real life, about how big was Velociraptor?Answer: The size of a turkey. Source: Wikipedia: Velociraptor
The long, narrow skull of Spinosaurus was like that of which animal alive today?Answer: A crocodile. Source: Wikipedia: Spinosaurus
The meat-eating dinosaurs are theropods. What does the word theropod mean?Answer: Wild beast foot. Source: Wikipedia: Theropoda
Oviraptor means egg thief. Why was it given that name?Answer: It was first thought to steal eggs. Source: Wikipedia: Oviraptor
Tyrannosaurus lived on an island continent that is now western North America. What is it called?Answer: Laramidia. Source: Wikipedia: Tyrannosaurus
What balanced the massive skull of Tyrannosaurus?Answer: A long, heavy tail. Source: Wikipedia: Tyrannosaurus
What covered the body of Velociraptor?Answer: Feathers. Source: Wikipedia: Velociraptor
What does the name Velociraptor mean?Answer: Swift thief. Source: Wikipedia: Velociraptor
What happened to the first Spinosaurus bones, found in Egypt in 1912?Answer: They were destroyed in World War II. Source: Wikipedia: Spinosaurus
Which big meat-eater lived beside Stegosaurus and may have hunted it?Answer: Allosaurus. Source: Wikipedia: Stegosaurus
Which plant-eater shared its landscape with Tyrannosaurus and was most likely its prey?Answer: Triceratops. Source: Wikipedia: Triceratops
Plant-eaters and giants 19
Diplodocus means double beam. Which part of the animal is the name about?Answer: Bones on the underside of its tail. Source: Wikipedia: Diplodocus
For decades Brontosaurus was counted as the same animal as which close relative?Answer: Apatosaurus. Source: Wikipedia: Brontosaurus
Giant long-necked dinosaurs such as Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus belong to which group?Answer: Sauropods. Source: Wikipedia: Sauropoda
Hadrosaurs are known by which nickname, after the shape of their snouts?Answer: Duck-billed dinosaurs. Source: Wikipedia: Hadrosauridae
In which period did Stegosaurus live?Answer: The Late Jurassic. Source: Wikipedia: Stegosaurus
Maiasaura means good mother lizard. What did its nests in Montana show?Answer: It fed its young in the nest. Source: Wikipedia: Maiasaura
The Montana site where the nests and eggs of Maiasaura were found was given which name?Answer: Egg Mountain. Source: Wikipedia: Maiasaura
Pachycephalosaurus is known for which feature?Answer: A very thick, domed skull. Source: Wikipedia: Pachycephalosaurus
Some sauropods seem to have swallowed stones. What were the stones for?Answer: Grinding tough plants in the gut. Source: Wikipedia: Gastrolith
The teeth of duck-billed dinosaurs were stacked into grinding blocks. What are the blocks called?Answer: Dental batteries. Source: Wikipedia: Hadrosauridae
What are the frill and horns of Triceratops now thought to have been used for, most of all?Answer: Showing off and knowing its own kind. Source: Wikipedia: Triceratops
What did Ankylosaurus carry at the end of its tail?Answer: A large club. Source: Wikipedia: Ankylosaurus
What does the name Brachiosaurus mean?Answer: Arm lizard. Source: Wikipedia: Brachiosaurus
What does the name Stegosaurus mean?Answer: Roof lizard. Source: Wikipedia: Stegosaurus
What does the name Triceratops mean?Answer: Three-horned face. Source: Wikipedia: Triceratops
What grew up and back from the skull of Parasaurolophus?Answer: A long, curved tube of a crest. Source: Wikipedia: Parasaurolophus
What is the spiked tail of Stegosaurus thought to have been for?Answer: Fighting off predators. Source: Wikipedia: Stegosaurus
What unusual weapon did Iguanodon have on each hand?Answer: A large thumb spike. Source: Wikipedia: Iguanodon
Which long-necked dinosaur has a name that means thunder lizard?Answer: Brontosaurus. Source: Wikipedia: Brontosaurus
Fossils and the people who found them 19
Barnum Brown named an armored dinosaur in 1908. Its name means fused lizard. Which is it?Answer: Ankylosaurus. Source: Wikipedia: Ankylosaurus
Before anyone knew what coprolites were, they went by which name?Answer: Fossil fir cones. Source: Wikipedia: Coprolite
By one rule of thumb, how old must remains be to count as fossils?Answer: More than 10,000 years. Source: Wikipedia: Fossil
Dinosaur eggs found in France in 1859 were mistaken for the eggs of what?Answer: Giant birds. Source: Wikipedia: Dinosaur egg
The fierce rivalry between the fossil hunters Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh is known as what?Answer: The Bone Wars. Source: Wikipedia: Bone Wars
Gideon Mantell named a dinosaur in 1825 after its teeth, which looked like those of a living lizard. What did he call it?Answer: Iguanodon. Source: Wikipedia: Iguanodon
How does buried bone or wood turn to stone?Answer: Minerals fill its pores and replace it. Source: Wikipedia: Petrifaction
How many new kinds of dinosaur were discovered and described through the Bone Wars?Answer: 142. Source: Wikipedia: Bone Wars
In 1842 Richard Owen set up the dinosaurs as a group, based on three kinds. Megalosaurus and Iguanodon were two. Which was the third?Answer: Hylaeosaurus. Source: Wikipedia: Megalosaurus
In 1923 a museum crew found the first eggs to be recognized as those of a dinosaur. In which country?Answer: Mongolia. Source: Wikipedia: Dinosaur egg
In the 1600s, the first bones of Megalosaurus were taken for the remains of what?Answer: Elephants or giants. Source: Wikipedia: Megalosaurus
Richard Owen, who gave the dinosaurs their name, campaigned for which London museum, opened in 1881?Answer: The Natural History Museum. Source: Wikipedia: Richard Owen
What is a coprolite?Answer: Fossil dung. Source: Wikipedia: Coprolite
Which French scientist showed in 1796 that animals of the past could die out for good?Answer: Georges Cuvier. Source: Wikipedia: Paleontology
Which method, developed in the early 20th century, lets scientists measure the age of rocks and the fossils in them?Answer: Radiometric dating. Source: Wikipedia: Fossil
Which of these is a trace fossil, a mark left by an animal and not a part of its body?Answer: A footprint. Source: Wikipedia: Trace fossil
Which small dinosaur, described in 1996, was the first outside the bird line to be found with signs of feathers?Answer: Sinosauropteryx. Source: Wikipedia: Sinosauropteryx
Which was the first dinosaur to be given a scientific name, in 1824?Answer: Megalosaurus. Source: Wikipedia: Megalosaurus
The word fossil comes from Latin. What does it mean?Answer: Obtained by digging. Source: Wikipedia: Fossil
Not a dinosaur, and what came after 16
About how big was Archaeopteryx, the feathered animal once counted as the oldest known bird?Answer: The size of a magpie. Source: Wikipedia: Archaeopteryx
After the asteroid struck, what is thought to have stopped plants from growing?Answer: A long, dark impact winter. Source: Wikipedia: Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
The crater left by the asteroid that ended the age of dinosaurs is called Chicxulub. What is it named after?Answer: A town in Mexico. Source: Wikipedia: Chicxulub crater
Dimetrodon, with a sail on its back, is often taken for a dinosaur. When did it die out?Answer: About 40 million years before dinosaurs appeared. Source: Wikipedia: Dimetrodon
The extinction closed the Mesozoic Era. Which era, the one we live in, began then?Answer: The Cenozoic. Source: Wikipedia: Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
The giant sea-going mosasaurs belong to the same order as which animals alive today?Answer: Lizards and snakes. Source: Wikipedia: Mosasaur
How did plesiosaurs have their young?Answer: They gave birth to live young. Source: Wikipedia: Plesiosaur
The idea that an asteroid strike ended the age of dinosaurs is also known by which name?Answer: The Alvarez hypothesis. Source: Wikipedia: Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
Mary Anning found the first two nearly complete skeletons of which sea reptile?Answer: The plesiosaur. Source: Wikipedia: Mary Anning
Mosasaurs are named after which river, where their first fossils turned up in a quarry in 1764?Answer: The Meuse. Source: Wikipedia: Mosasaur
The name Pteranodon tells you what the animal did not have. What?Answer: Teeth. Source: Wikipedia: Pteranodon
Plesiosaurs swam in the seas of the dinosaur age. What had their four limbs become?Answer: Long flippers. Source: Wikipedia: Plesiosaur
Pterosaurs lived at the same time as dinosaurs. What were they?Answer: Flying reptiles. Source: Wikipedia: Pterosaur
What were the two men who found the buried crater in the late 1970s looking for?Answer: Oil. Source: Wikipedia: Chicxulub crater
Which finger held up the wing of a pterosaur?Answer: The fourth. Source: Wikipedia: Pterosaur
Which of these groups lived through the extinction that ended the age of dinosaurs?Answer: Crocodilians. Source: Wikipedia: Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
How it works
How big was a real Velociraptor, and which sail-backed animal was never a dinosaur at all? These dinosaur trivia questions give the answer, a short reason and the page it was checked on.
Read the full guide
Simple dinosaur trivia questions first
Set Level to Easy for the 24 a young fan can answer, such as what Triceratops means and what Ankylosaurus carried on its tail. Medium and Hard are for the grown-ups at the table.
Five rounds for a party or a class
Three periods and the timeline sorts Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. Meat-eaters and Plant-eaters and giants take the animals one by one. Fossils and the people who found them has the Bone Wars. Not a dinosaur, and what came after covers flying reptiles, sea reptiles and the asteroid.
Let the youngest player read the names aloud. Half the fun is saying Pachycephalosaurus.
Questions and answers
What are some easy dinosaur trivia questions?
How many clawed fingers did Tyrannosaurus have on each hand? What did Ankylosaurus carry at the end of its tail? What is a coprolite? The answers are two, a large club and fossil dung.
Which dinosaur was the first to be named?
Megalosaurus, which William Buckland named in 1824. Iguanodon followed in 1825. The group itself was set up in 1842, when Richard Owen put those two together with Hylaeosaurus.
Were pterodactyls dinosaurs?
No. Pterosaurs were flying reptiles that lived at the same time as dinosaurs. The plesiosaurs and mosasaurs of the seas were not dinosaurs either, and Dimetrodon died out long before the first dinosaur.
How were the answers checked?
On October 9, 2026, in the English Wikipedia article linked beside each question, from Dinosaur to Mary Anning. Biggest, longest and heaviest are not asked, because a new find can change them.