Fancy a fun way to !nd out about the history of the natural world? Reckon you’re a whizz at knowing What on Earth Happened?

Then why not try this amazing 100-question quiz to test out your knowledge of natural history from the beginning of time to the present day? All the answers, arranged in rough chronological order, can be found or deduced from the timeline overleaf. Good luck!

SECTION 1: HADEAN 8. How many eyes did the curious arthropod-like sea creature Opabinia have? 1. About how much of the world’s water arrived on a giant a) One bombardment of comets? b) Three a) 20% c) Five b) 40% d) Seven c) 70% d) 90% 9. What bodily features indicate the beginnings of an arms race between creatures in the Cambrian seas? 2. Which of the following gases did not feature in the Earth’s a) Eyes and shells early atmosphere? b) Jaws and teeth a) Oxygen c) Segmented bodies b) Nitrogen d) Stinging tentacles c) Methane d) Carbon dioxide 10. Vauxia is an ancient type of: a) Branching sponge SECTION 2: ARCHAEN b) Stinging jellyfish c) Segmented trilobite 3. What does LUCA stand for? d) Eel-like fish a) Largest Underwater Cretaceous Animal b) Lower Urinary Causeway and Anterior SECTION 5: ORDOVICIAN c) Least Uniform Cryogenic Annelid d) Last Universal Common Ancestor 11. Megalograptus was a: a) Gigantic dinosaur 4. What process leads to the formation of complex cells? b) Huge sea scorpion a) Photosynthesis c) Towering tree b) Respiration d) Terrifying raptor c) Sexual reproduction d) Endosymbiosis 12. Which of the following landmasses formed first? a) Laurasia 5. Chloroplasts are structures in plant cells that turn sunlight b) Gondwana and carbon dioxide into food and oxygen – a process called c) Australia photosynthesis. From which life forms are they thought to d) Pangaea have been originally descended? a) Purple bacteria SECTION 6: SILURIAN b) Spirochetes c) Cyanobacteria 13. What is thought to have provoked the first mass extinction of d) Algae life in the seas? a) A massive meteorite impact SECTION 3: PROTEROZIC b) Glaciation over the South Pole c) Melting methane from the sea floor 6. Oceanic crust is: d) Bubonic plague a) More dense and thicker than continental crust b) Less dense and thicker than continental crust 14. Possibly the first arthropods to explore life on land resembled: c) More dense but thinner than continental crust a) Beetles d) Less dense but thinner than continental crust b) Scorpions c) Lungfish SECTION 4: CAMBRIAN d) Worms

7. What eel-like sea creature may have been the ancestor to all vertebrate animals? a) Pikaia b) Opabinia c) Hallucigenia d) Cloudinia 15. Which of the following features did primitive flowers NOT lack? 23. When limestone is crushed by the collision of tectonic plates a) Stems it turns into: b) Leaves a) Chalk c) Roots b) Alabaster d) Flowers c) Slate d) Marble SECTION 7: DEVONIAN 24. Which of the following tree families did NOT form part of the 16. Which of the following plant families did NOT form part of Carboniferous coal-making flora? the early terrestrial landscape, 400 million years ago? a) Lepidodenron a) Mosses b) Calimites b) Orchids c) Oak c) Liverworts d) Glassopteris d) Cooksonia 25. There are no coal deposits to be found on 17. Phloem and Xylem are: Earth dating back to the period: a) Vascular tissues for transporting nutrients and water a) 350–340 million years ago around plants b) 290–280 million years ago b) Different shaped teeth in the jaws of prehistoric sharks c) 250–240 million years ago c) Ancient types of lichens that first colonised the land d) 180–170 million years ago d) The male and female sex organs of a giant squid 26. Diplocaulus was a Carboniferous-era amphibian that had the 18. Which of the following families teamed up with fungi to following curious anatomical features: mutual benefit on land? a) An arrow-shaped head a) Amphibians b) A heart-shaped tongue b) Plants c) Dr Spock-like ears c) Worms d) Square-shaped feet d) Reptiles SECTION 9: PERMIAN

27. Which of the following events is NOT thought to have 19. Why did levels of atmospheric oxygen rise rapidly in the late contributed to the Permian mass extinction, 252 million Devonian Period? years ago? a) Spread of plant life on land a) The melting of frozen methane substrates on the b) Increase in volcanic activity sea floor c) The emergence of massive coral reefs b) An increase in volcanic activity d) Abnormal levels of solar radiation c) A giant meteorite strike d) A severe glaciation over the South Pole SECTION 8: CARBONIFEROUS SECTION 10: TRIASSIC 20. About when did some terrestrial creatures start laying hard- shelled eggs so they could reproduce inland? 28. Deciduous trees lose their leaves for part of the year as a a) 500 million years ago way of: b) 400 million years ago a) Protecting against the cold c) 300 million years ago b) Conserving water d) 200 million years ago c) Saving food d) Fertilising the soil 21. Eryops was a powerful 2m long amphibious carnivore that had rudimentary: 29. Lystrosaurus was a mammal-like reptile that survived the a) Canines Permian mass extinction because it was able to: b) Nostrils a) Tolerate low oxygen environments c) Ears b) Reproduce asexually d) Eyebrows c) See in the dark d) Live off a diet of worms

30. Euparkeria is one of the first terrestrial animals to: a) Make distinctive sounds as mating calls b) Lay blue eggs 22. Why did some insects, such as dragonflies, grow exceptionally c) Have a furry body large in the Carboniferous era? d) Walk on two feet a) An oversupply of body-building food b) Rising levels of oxygen in the air c) Increasing competition for survival between different living things d) A courtship strategy in the bid for males to mate with females 31. Which of the attributes below helped archosaurs, the 40. Termites are close relatives of which of the following insect ancestors of dinosaurs, to dominate life on land following the families? Permian mass extinction? a) Ants a) Strong jaw muscles b) Wasps b) A venomous bite c) Maggots c) Molar teeth for chewing d) Cockroaches d) Warm bloodedness 41. Diatoms are types of microscopic: 32. The word ‘dinosaur’ means: a) Bacteria a) Terrible-lizard b) Algae b) Hungry-biter c) Amoeba c) Dangerous-reptile d) Fungi d) Noisy-tooter 42. Snakes are directly descended from which of the following 33. Birds are directly descended from which animal family? animal families? a) Saurichian dinosaurs a) Worms b) Ornithischian dinosaurs b) Eels c) Pteradactyls c) Toads d) Bats d) Lizards

SECTION 11: JURASSIC 43. Which of the following features were common in ancient birds such as Archaeopteryx but are absent from modern 34. Jet is a black mineral that is formed from the fossilised birds? remains of? a) Teeth a) Carboniferous beetles b) Gizzard b) Triassic termites c) Hollow bones c) Permian palm trees d) Feathers d) Jurassic monkey-puzzles 44. Which of the following was NOT a 35. Where do most mammals keep their eggs? marine reptile? a) In the ground a) Plesiosaur b) In a nest b) Pliosaur c) In their bodies c) Pterosaur d) In water d) Steneosaurus

36. Which of the following helped protect primitive mammals 45. Which family of marine reptiles is notorious and their offspring against dinosaur attack? for having extraordinarily long necks? a) Sharp teeth a) Pliosaur b) Pointy fingernails b) Plesiosaur c) Breast milk c) Mossasaur d) Hairy nostrils d) Susisuchus

37. Which of the following ancient sea creatures had a coiled SECTION 12: CRETACEOUS shell and can often be found as fossils? a) Trilobites 46. About 90 million years ago India was attached to which b) Troglodytes continent? c) Astomites a) Africa d) Ammonites b) Europe c) Australia 38. Diplodocus, the herbivorous dinosaur giant, belonged to d) Asia which of the following reptile families? a) Theropod 47. Which of the following is a particular feature of all ‘monocot’ b) Sauropod flowering plants? c) Pterosaur a) They are all shrubs and flowers, not trees d) Plesiosaur b) They grow outwards from the tips of the shoots and leaves 39. Which of the following dinosaurs is notorious for having a c) They grow outwards from a central bud walnut-sized 80 gram brain? d) They are all deciduous a) Tyrannosaurus rex b) Triceratops 48. Which of the following statements about male mosquitoes c) Stegosaurus is TRUE? d) Kentosaurus a) Unlike females, they don’t suck blood b) Unlike females, they suck blood c) They carry more diseases than females d) They are about twice the size of females 49. Songbirds are thought to have originated in which SECTION 14: EOCENE part of the world? a) Africa 58. What occurred about 49 million years ago that is thought to b) North America have dramatically changed the Earth’s climate? c) South America a) A massive meteorite strike d) New Zealand b) A wobble in the Earth’s orbit c) A surge in solar activity 50. Which of the following statements about flowering plants is d) The growth of a giant marsh in the north sea NOT true? a) Their ovaries swell up to form fruits 59. Fig trees are pollinated by which type of insects? b) They contain a sugary drink for insects to feast on a) Beetles c) They diverged into two big families – monocots and b) Mosquitoes dicots c) Wasps d) The first evolved approximately 200 million years ago d) Moths

51. Over millions of years the remains of microscopic marine 60. Whales evolved from animals that looked like: organisms called coccolithophores fall on to the sea floor a) Deer and gradually turn into: b) Sharks a) Limestone c) Ray-finned fish b) Chalk d) Sea cows c) Sand d) Marble

52. The fossilised remains of what organisms have been found in clays beneath the city of London? 61. Which of the following types of birds do NOT belong to the a) Palaeocene palm trees Galliform family? b) Jurassic theropods a) Turkeys c) Triassic tulips b) Chickens d) Cretaceous kangaroos c) Ducks d) Pheasants 53. A mososaur is a type of ancient: a) Therapod 62. The Antarctic ice sheet began to form in which geological b) Tetrapod era? c) Pterodactyl a) Eocene d) Marine lizard b) Palaeocene c) Oligocene 54. Which of the following attributes of flowering plants are NOT d) Jurassic designed to attract insects, birds or mammals? a) Sugary nectar 63. Flowering plants originated in which type of climate? b) Bright flowers a) Tropical c) Juicy fruit b) Alpine d) Nutritious tubers c) Desert d) Tundra SECTION 13: PALAEOCENE 64. Why do pine trees sometimes secrete sticky resin? 55. Today’s oil deposits in the Middle East are the remains of a) To prevent intrusion by infectious micro-organisms marine life deposited in which ancient sea? b) To capture insects a) Tethys c) To regulate internal fluid levels b) Iapetus d) To help glue on newly established branches c) Gondwanan d) Baltic SECTION 15: OLIGOCENE

56. How are oak trees pollinated? 65. Which of the following is NOT a member of the Rosaceae a) Wind family of flowering plants? b) Squirrels a) Apples c) Moths b) Apricots d) Birds c) Lemons d) Roses

66. Which of the following features makes 57. Pigs, goats, sheep, camels and deer all belong to which New World monkeys distinctive? mammal family? a) Black fur a) Ungulates b) Flat noses b) Marsupials c) Hand gestures c) Carnivora d) Brightly-coloured bottoms d) Condylarths 67. Bears first emerged in which part of the world? 76. Camels originally evolved from creatures that once lived in: a) North Africa a) Asia b) North America b) Europe c) Southern Asia c) Africa d) Siberia d) The Americas

68. Why did horses legs gradually get longer? 77. Why did so many mammals grow to gigantic sizes during a) To jump further the ice ages? b) To run faster a) To reach higher into the trees c) To reach higher b) As a way of keeping warm with extra body fat d) None of the above c) Because there was more food available to eat d) Because of growth hormone stimulated by climate 69. Which of the following is hunted by a sperm whale? change a) Krill b) Squid 78. Penguins belong to which of the following animal families? c) Prawns a) Birds d) Flounder b) Mammals c) Amphibians SECTION 16: MIOCENE d) Fish

70. Why do sperm whales have such big heads? a) To protect their bulging brains b) To use as a battering ram in courtship contests c) To help them stay buoyant in deep water d) To accommodate a giant ego SECTION 18: PLEISTOCENE 71. What’s the big advantage of the C4 mode of photosynthesis that emerged in certain families of grass around 15 million 79. Charles Darwin discovered the bones of which mammal years ago? species on his voyage around the world on HMS Beagle? a) It uses less carbon dioxide a) Megatherium b) It requires less sunlight b) Toxodon c) It produces more food c) Camelops d) It forms stronger stems d) Elasmotherium

SECTION 17: PLIOCENE 80. Roughly how regularly have extreme glaciations occurred in the current ice ages? 72. The Mediterranean is all that remain of which ancient sea? a) 10,000 years a) Panthalassa b) 100,000 years b) Tethys c) 500,000 years c) Iapetus d) 800,000 years d) Indus 81. What may have led to a dramatic crash in human 73. Which of the following is NOT thought to have been one of populations in Africa about 70,000 years ago? the reasons that some ape-like creatures got up and walked a) A drought on two feet around 4 million years ago? b) A super-volcano a) Because they had big brains c) An ice age b) Because they wanted to see further into the distance d) Disease c) For wading across rivers d) For carrying food into storage 82. Which of the following continents was NOT visited by our ancestor Homo erectus? 74. The Gulf Stream is responsible for: a) Africa a) Warming Europe b) Europe b) Covering the South Pole with an ice cap c) Asia c) Triggering tsunamis in the Pacific d) America d) Spreading smallpox across the Atlantic

75. Bamboo trees belong to which of the following plant families: a) Grass 83. Which of the following phenomena is NOT thought to have b) Palm an effect on global temperatures? c) Fern a) Variations on the Earth’s orbit around the Sun d) Conifer b) Variations in the rotation of the Earth around its vertical axis c) Variations in the rotation of the Earth around its horizontal axis d) Thinning of the globe’s ozone layer SECTION 19: HOLOCENE 93. Which age is the most recent? a) Iron Age 84. A climatic episode known as the Younger Dryas event may b) Bronze Age have been triggered by the development of which human c) Stone Age activity? d) Copper Age a) Agriculture b) Mining 94. The Great Barrier Reef covers an area approximately how c) Music large? d) Monogamy a) 3,000 square miles b) 23,000 square miles 85. The domestic dog is a sub-species of which wild animal? c) 53,000 square miles a) Jackal d) 133,000 square miles b) Wolf c) Fox 95. Alum is a mineral mined from medieval quarries that was d) Boar used for: a) Mixing into toothpaste 86. A mule is a cross between a: b) Fixing colour dyes to cloth a) Horse and zebra c) Making tools for locks b) Donkey and ass d) Smelting into aluminium c) Ass and horse d) Horse and donkey 96. Which of the following crops was NOT cultivated by Native American farmers? 87. Coffee berries were first crushed and turned into a beverage a) Maize in which country? b) Coffee a) Ethiopia c) Tomatoes b) Brazil d) Potatoes c) Kenya d) Costa Rica SECTION 20: ANTHROPOCENE

88. Oranges originated in which part of the world? 97. Cities such as London require, on average, an area how many a) Florida times bigger than the land they occupy to feed their tightly- b) Spain knit populations? c) Canada a) 2 times d) China b) 45 times c) 125 times 89. Sugar was first cultivated in: d) 254 times a) West Africa b) North America 98. Which two countries were saved from famine in the 20th c) India century thanks to the so-called ‘Green revolution’? d) Polynesia a) Ethiopia and Bengal b) India and Mexico 90. Bombyx mori is a species of: c) Namibia and Armenia a) Caterpillar d) Bangladesh and Cambodia b) Worm c) Butterfly 99. Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today d) Earwig are roughly how many parts per million? a) 200 91. Which of the following did NOT aid farmers in medieval b) 300 Europe? c) 400 a) Collar harness d) 500 b) Iron plough c) Warming climate 100. Which of the following factors does not increase human d) A gold rush population levels? a) Improvements in agricultural techniques 92. What made it possible for ancient Egyptian farmers to leave b) Artificial fertilisers their land and work as labourers building pyramids for three c) Genetic modification months a year? d) The contraceptive pill a) Slave labour b) The Aswan Dam c) Honeybees d) Earthworms

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