Quiz template · Education
Dinosaurs quiz questions and answers
20 questions on T. rex, Triceratops, fossils and the asteroid that ended it all, for a class, a museum trip or a family night.
Easy 20 questions 30 s each · about 16 min Checked against two sources
Dinosaurs are the one science topic nobody has to be talked into. This quiz works for a primary or middle school class, the bus ride to the museum, or a family evening. It starts with the famous names and works up to fossil hunters and the Chicxulub crater. Twenty questions take about 16 minutes.
How to run it
- Let younger players team up in pairs with one phone between them. Reading the options together is half the learning.
- Pause on the explanations. Each one adds a fact the question did not give, which is where your lesson or museum visit can pick up.
- Question 20 asks for a year. Keep it as your tie-breaker, or swap it for a question about your own local museum.
Questions and answers
1The word dinosaur comes from Greek words usually translated as what?Easy
- AGiant bird
- BTerrible lizard
- COld dragon
- DThunder beast
Reveal answer
B. Terrible lizard
The Greek deinos means terrible or fearfully great, and sauros means lizard. The scientist who coined the name in the 1840s meant it to show how big and impressive these animals were.
2Which dinosaur's name means tyrant lizard king?Easy
- AAllosaurus
- BGiganotosaurus
- CTyrannosaurus rex
- DCarnotaurus
Reveal answer
C. Tyrannosaurus rex
Tyrannos is Greek for tyrant and sauros for lizard. Rex is Latin for king. T. rex lived at the very end of the age of dinosaurs, about 68 to 66 million years ago.
3How many horns did Triceratops have on its face?Easy
- AThree
- BOne
- CTwo
- DFive
Reveal answer
A. Three
The name means three horned face. Triceratops had one short horn on its nose and two long horns above its eyes, plus a bony frill that could reach nearly a metre across.
4True or false: Tyrannosaurus rex lived in what is now North America.Easy
- ATrue
- BFalse
Reveal answer
A. True
T. rex fossils have been found in the western United States and in Canada. It was one of the last big meat eaters before the dinosaurs died out.
5Stegosaurus had bony plates on its back and sharp spikes on which part of its body?Easy
- AIts head
- BIts legs
- CIts neck
- DIts tail
Reveal answer
D. Its tail
The plates stood upright along its back in two rows. Four long spikes near the tip of the tail were its defence against predators like Allosaurus. Scientists call the spiked tail a thagomizer.
6Diplodocus belonged to which group of long necked plant eaters?Medium
- ATheropods
- BSauropods
- CCeratopsians
- DAnkylosaurs
Reveal answer
B. Sauropods
Sauropods were the giants with long necks, long tails and legs like pillars. Diplodocus reached about 26 metres and ate soft plants and leaves in the Late Jurassic.
7About how many years ago did the non bird dinosaurs die out?Easy
- A6,600 years ago
- B6.6 million years ago
- C66 million years ago
- D660 million years ago
Reveal answer
C. 66 million years ago
The extinction came at the end of the Cretaceous period. The strongest evidence points to a huge asteroid strike, with volcanic eruptions and climate change making things worse.
8About how long was a real Velociraptor from nose to tail?Medium
- AAbout 2 metres
- BAbout 6 metres
- CAbout 12 metres
- DAbout 50 centimetres
Reveal answer
A. About 2 metres
Velociraptor was about the size of a turkey and probably had feathers. The Jurassic Park films showed it at around twice its real size.
9Birds evolved from which group of dinosaurs?Easy
- ASauropods
- BStegosaurs
- CCeratopsians
- DTheropods
Reveal answer
D. Theropods
Theropods were the two legged meat eaters, and birds came from small feathered ones. That makes birds living dinosaurs. The change began around 160 million years ago.
10The age of dinosaurs, the Mesozoic Era, is split into the Triassic, the Jurassic and which third period?Medium
- ACambrian
- BCretaceous
- CPermian
- DDevonian
Reveal answer
B. Cretaceous
The Cretaceous was the last of the three. T. rex and Triceratops lived at its end. The Jurassic came before it and gave its name to the films.
11What do we call the preserved remains or traces of living things from long ago?Easy
- AFossils
- BCrystals
- CMeteorites
- DMinerals
Reveal answer
A. Fossils
A fossil can be a bone, a shell, a footprint or even a leaf print. Most form when remains are buried in mud or sand that slowly turns to rock.
12True or false: pterosaurs, the flying reptiles of the dinosaur age, were dinosaurs.Medium
- ATrue
- BFalse
Reveal answer
B. False
Pterosaurs were a separate group of flying reptiles. They shared an ancestor with dinosaurs but did not evolve from them. They were the first vertebrates known to fly under their own power.
13Which dinosaur, named in 1824, was the first to get a scientific name?Medium
- AIguanodon
- BAllosaurus
- CMegalosaurus
- DBrontosaurus
Reveal answer
C. Megalosaurus
William Buckland named Megalosaurus, which means big lizard, from bones found in England. The word dinosaur itself did not exist until the 1840s.
14True or false: Brachiosaurus had front legs that were longer than its back legs.Easy
- ATrue
- BFalse
Reveal answer
A. True
The name means arm lizard. The long front legs tilted its body upwards, so its neck reached high into the trees. That was unusual among dinosaurs.
15Who coined the name Dinosauria?Medium
- ACharles Darwin
- BMary Anning
- CGideon Mantell
- DRichard Owen
Reveal answer
D. Richard Owen
Owen was an English anatomist. He proposed the name in a report on British fossil reptiles, published in 1842, and based it on three fossil reptiles known at the time.
5 more questions in the full pack. Play all 20 live, free.
Get all 20 questions, ready to play live - free for 100 playersQuestions about this template
What age group is the dinosaur quiz for?
The first fifteen questions suit children from about age eight, and the facts hold up for adults. The last five are harder and include the fossil hunters and the extinction crater.
Can a whole class play at the same time?
Yes. Press Go live and put the PIN or QR code on the classroom screen. Up to 100 players join on the free plan, answer on their own devices and see the leaderboard after each question.
Do students need an account or an app?
No. They open the link or scan the code, type the PIN and a name, and play in the browser. Only the teacher or host needs a RiLiFi account.
Can I change the questions to match our lesson?
Yes. Use this template to make a copy, then edit, reorder or delete questions, add your own, and change the timer or the points.
Sources
Every answer shown here was checked against two sources, listed below. Links last checked 24 October 2026.
- Dinosaur - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Dinosauria: How the ‘terrible lizards’ got their name | Natural History Museumnhm.ac.uk
- Tyrannosaurus - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Tyrannosaurus | Natural History Museumnhm.ac.uk
- Triceratops - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Triceratops | Natural History Museumnhm.ac.uk
- Stegosaurus - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Stegosaurus | Natural History Museumnhm.ac.uk
- Diplodocus - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Diplodocus | Natural History Museumnhm.ac.uk
- Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- What killed the dinosaurs? | Natural History Museumnhm.ac.uk
- Velociraptor - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Velociraptor | Natural History Museumnhm.ac.uk
- Origin of birds - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- How dinosaurs evolved into birds | Natural History Museumnhm.ac.uk
- Mesozoic - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- The Mesozoic Eraucmp.berkeley.edu
- Fossil - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- What is a Fossil? - Fossils and Paleontology (U.S. National Park Service)nps.gov
- Pterosaur - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Pterosaurs: The truth about these ‘flying dinosaurs’ | Natural History Museumnhm.ac.uk
- Megalosaurus - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Megalosaurus | Natural History Museumnhm.ac.uk
- Brachiosaurus - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Brachiosaurus | Natural History Museumnhm.ac.uk
- Richard Owen - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Richard Owen (1804-1892)ucmp.berkeley.edu
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