Eye Black: What Works for Football Players Works for the Cheetah

I remember when I was younger I would always wonder why baseball and football players wore black paint under their eyes.  My dad told me that the "eye black" was to help to reduce the glare that their eyes received from the sun.  Although some people seem to disagree whether or not this is effective for human sports players, it seems that several animals have evolved a similar pattern on their face!  But before we dive in, a very special thanks to Anne Price for her help with this post!

I imagine that there are a number of stories told by native peoples of Africa that explain the tear marks of the cheetah, which you can see in the picture above.  The one that I have heard before (which you can read by clicking HERE) tells of the cheetah being told by lions that she was not a cat, and instead was a dog.  The cheetah then went to talk with the wild dogs.  But the wild dogs also kicked the cheetah out, saying that she was a cat and not a dog.  The cheetah, sad with the fact that she did not seem to belong to either group, cried so much that the tear marks were burned into her face.

Some scientists believe that these black marks, which they called "malar stripes" or "malar marks," actually evolved to help the cheetah see in sunny conditions, by reducing glare and keeping the sun out of its eyes.  This would have been the original "eye black," a phenomenon whose roots extend back much further than the origins of baseball or football.  I was surprised when I was researching this natural eye black, as I thought it was a commonly cited fact that cheetahs had this eye black to reduce glare.  However, many of the sources just mentioned the malar stripes, and didn't actually address their function.  

In the book "Big Cat Diary: Cheetah," Jonathan and Angela Scott propose an alternative hypothesis.  Though they do mention the anti-glare hypothesis, the Scotts suspect that a more likely alternative is that the tear-marks serve to "accentuate facial expressions," which they say would be an "important consideration in social interactions with other cheetahs."  The tear marks, "along with the growls and hisses that are an important part of a cheetah's defensive repertoire," might "deter competitors from approaching."  While this is well and good for the cheetah, and is likely at least part of the reason why the cheetah has the malar stripes, I have a difficult time believing that this is the only reason why some animals evolved the stripes.  We will get to my reasoning in a second.

What I find really interesting about these stripes is that they are unique to the cheetah in the cat world.  The cheetah, as is mentioned in the African story above, is a very unique cat, different in many ways from others felines.  One way in which the cheetah is different is that it hunts primarily during the day, and is much less a nocturnal animal than most cats.  If you look at the eye of your house cat, look for two things.  The first is the size of the eye.  Though the cat is quite small compared to you, Mr. Whiskers has eyes that are only a bit smaller than yours!  Second, look at the pupils.  Unlike the pupils of humans that stay circular regardless of the level of dilation or constriction, cat pupils constrict to tiny diamond slits, but dilate to large circles.  This is because most cats are active at night and during the day, and in order to protect their eyes in a variety of light conditions, they have evolved very mobile pupils.  

My cat Chimney.  Notice her slit pupils.  And the One Direction pillow in the background.  Photo Credit: Dani Neher

The cheetah does not have diamond pupils, and instead has round pupils.  This stems from the fact that cheetahs are primarily diurnal, and usually hunt during the day.  According to the Scotts, "just like birds of prey," cheetahs have a "patch of highly light-sensitive cells on the retina known as the fovea."  These cells provide the cheetah with the "most precise visual perception," and enables them to "spot prey from as far away as 5 km (3 miles)."  I find this comparison to birds of prey interesting, as both the cheetah and the prairie falcon, another animal with malar stripes, would have the need to be able to spot prey from a great distance, and in sunny conditions.  This large North American falcon has very similar streaks of brown feathers beneath its eye, which flow down the face.  According to "The Prairie Falcon" by Stanley Anderson and John Squires, the "black mustachial stripes near the eyes...may further reduce glare."

This idea is supported by other bird of prey experts, such as Anne Price, the Curator of Raptors at the Raptor Education Foundation in Colorado.  Eager to learn more about the similar stripes on the face of the prairie falcon, I emailed Anne, and here's what she had to say:

It’s meant to reduce glare by having the sun strike or be concentrated in the area beneath the eye, leaving the area above in proper contrast.  The black lines under the eyes of cheetahs, most falcons (gyrfalcons and merlins being notable exceptions) and even flickers have malar stripes, though in flickers they serve as signals for courtship, not for better visibility of prey species!

Other falcons that have the malar stripe include the American kestrel....

....and the peregrine falcon.

Not all falcons have the malar stripe, however.  As Anne mentioned above, gyrfalcons and merlins are notable falcons that don't have the malar stripe, but here is another one: the African pygmy falcon, the smallest of the African raptors!  This is a picture that I took of one at the Denver Zoo.

Furthermore, the black streak under the eye is also seen on the face of many species that the cheetah preys upon.  According to the cheetah section in "Wild Cats of the World" by Mel and Fiona Sunquist, 91% of cheetah kills in the Serengeti are Thomson's gazelle.  In Kruger National Park, 68% of kills were the impala, and in other areas such as Botswana, springbok are an important part of the diet as well.  73.9% of the kills made by cheetahs in Nairobi National Park were Thomson's gazelle, Grant's gazelle, and impala.  As you can see in the pictures below, all of these antelope have that black streak under their eyes, though it is less pronounced in the Grant's gazelle and impala than it is in the Thomson's gazelle.  One of the biggest reasons for markings on an animal that don't aid in camouflage or sexual selection (i.e. differences between male and female that are used to attract a mate) is to help with species differentiation, so that they don't waste valuable time and resources attempting to breed with each other.  But since all of these antelope have the black tear marks, as well as both genders of the species, that's probably not the role that the tear marks were playing.*

A Cuvier's gazelle at the San Diego Zoo, which also has very similar malar stripes.

A Speke's gazelle at the San Diego Zoo, yet another gazelle that has the same sort of malar stripes.

It is these antelope that make me wonder whether the cheetah evolved the malar stripe to "accentuate facial expressions," as proposed by the Scotts.  In my experience, antelope such as the Thomson's gazelle don't really go around making faces at each other, at least nowhere near as much as cats do.  The fact that both the predator and prey in this scenario possess the same adaptation makes me wonder whether coevolution has occurred.

Coevolution is a biological phenomenon in which the evolution of one animal influences the evolution of another.  A classic example would be flowers and the insects that pollinate them.  Flowers need their pollen to be carried to other flowers in order for reproduction to occur.  Oftentimes, these flowers employ the use of bees and other insects to do the job for them.  But to make it worth their while, the flowers supply the insects with a delicious meal of nectar.  When the insects land to suck up the nectar, they also pick up some pollen.  Then, when they fly off to another flower to indulge in some more nectar, they unknowingly deposit some of the pollen, and simultaneously pick up some more!

I find it possible that coevolution has occurred in regards to the cheetah and its prey.  Imagine if a certain lineage of cheetah evolved that had the black tear marks beneath their eyes, while the rest of their cheetah brethren did not have this black streak.  If the black streak did help them see their prey a little better by reducing glare, then perhaps these cheetahs were more successful hunters, and produced more offspring because of it.  Suddenly, the gazelles and impala are faced with a formidable foe that can suddenly see farther than they used to be able to.  In order to compensate, it's possible that the antelope who also had black streaks under their eyes were able to see farther as well, and spot the approach of a predator from a greater distance.  Strangely enough, I haven't been able to find anything anywhere suggesting that coevolution might have occurred here, so who knows!  I'm just throwing this out there, I'm not saying that's definitely what happened, but it's a prospect which I find intriguing and thought worth sharing with all of you.

*To read more about species differentiation and the role it plays in the success of biological organisms and species diversity, click HERE to learn more about the effects of logging on a type of fish called cichlids.

Works Cited:



An interview with Anne Price.

Anderson, Stanley H., and John R. Squires. The Prairie Falcon. University of Texas Press, 1997. (accessed December 16, 2013).

"General Information About the Cheetah." Cheetah Conservation Fund. http://www.cheetah.org/?nd=general_info (accessed December 16, 2013).

"How The Cheetah Got Its Tears." Cheetah Conservation Fund. http://www.cheetah.org/?nd=story_cheetah_tears (accessed December 16, 2013).

Stokes, Donald, and Lillian Stokes. The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010. (accessed January 23, 2014).

Colorado Raptors of Winter: An Interview With Anne Price

You guys have heard of Anne Price from the Raptor Education Foundation (REF) before: she's the one who brings all of the awesome birds of prey to the raptor shows at the Best Western Denver Southwest dinosaur hotel!  Eager to learn more about some of the raptors that live here in Colorado during the winter, and how the change in weather affects the birds behavior!  She was nice enough to oblige, and the answers were definitely very interesting!  So after you check out the REF website HERE and like their Facebook page HERE, please join me in welcoming Anne Price, Curator of Raptors at the Raptor Education Foundation!

Anne Price with a prairie falcon at the Best Western Denver Southwest!

1. What raptors are you likely to see if you live along the Front Range here in Colorado?

The big four hawks are: red-tailed hawk (year round), Swainson’s hawk (April through early October), rough-legged hawk (October through March), and Ferruginous hawk (year round, but rare on front range in summer months).  Turkey vultures in spring, bald eagles in winter, golden eagles, Cooper’s hawks and American kestrels year-round, turkey vultures and osprey from March through October.  There are more species around but these are the most likely to be seen by the average birder.

A red-tailed hawk at another one of the raptor shows at the Best Western!

2. What raptors have migrated away that you would be able to see along the Front Range during the summer?

Turkey vultures and Swainson’s hawks.

Anne Price holding a turkey vulture!

3. What special behavior, such as courtship rituals or other behaviors like that, can you observe in raptors during December and January along the Front Range?

You may see red-tailed hawks and bald eagles start to sit next to each other in trees or along telephone poles. The big excitement comes from great-horned owls, which will begin courtship calling (hooting back and forth) in the middle of the night, starting around Christmas Day.

Anne holding a great-horned owl!

4. Do the raptors at the REF change their behavior at all during the winter? If so, how do they change?

Our birds eat more, so we feed them more to put on just a bit more fat for the cold weather. Our two Swainson’s hawks get feisty and start stealing food because their metabolism is telling them that they need to bulk up for a long migration ahead. I always let them gain 1-3 oz during this transition so they are ready for the cold, which came early this year and was REALLY cold. Our female golden eagle will also start gaining weight and developing a brood patch as she gets ready to lay her eggs in early March. She has gained 9 oz just in the last 2 weeks!

A golden eagle takes flight in Dinosaur National Monument!

5.  Finally, I remember you mentioning the black streaks under the eyes of the prairie falcon as a glare reducing adaptation. What can you tell me about that?

It’s called the “malar stripe” or “malar mark.” It’s meant to reduce glare by having the sun strike or be concentrated in the area beneath the eye, leaving the area above in proper contrast. These are black or dark lines under the eyes of cheetahs, most falcons (gyrfalcons and merlins being notable exceptions).  Even flickers have malar stripes, though in these birds they serve as signals for courtship, not for better visibility of prey species!

Which is why the Rockies and the Broncos do the same thing…….

A REF prairie falcon at the Best Western!

Thank you so much Anne for taking the time out of your schedule to answer some of our questions!  I know I will definitely be on the lookout for these birds in the upcoming weeks, and hopefully everyone else will be, too!  Make sure to check out the REF Facebook page HERE, as well as their website HERE.  You can also come visit all the REF birds on Saturday, April 12 from 11am to 2pm! Admission is free and there will be giveaways and refreshments.  RSVPs are kindly requested; please visit http://www.usaref.org/OpenHouse.htm.  Thanks again, and keep an eye out for a follow-up post regarding those fascinating malar marks!

Pictures of my Animals From My New Camera!

For Christmas I got a new camera, a Canon EOS Rebel! I have a ton of awesome pictures that I want to share, including pictures of my pets, some astrophotography, and more!  First, I am going to share some pictures of some of my various critters!  To see some higher quality versions of some of these pictures, check out my Flickr by clicking HERE!  First off, some shots of my beagle-basset dog, Daisy!

My mom with Daisy!

Next up are some pictures of my chubby kitty, Chimney!

Up next are some of my other pets, such as Juan Priestly the betta fish!  I have two, a delta tail and a veil tail, and I can't remember for certain which one is which.

In another tank I have two African dwarf frogs (Hymenochirus boettgeri), and this is the new one I got just a few days ago!  I named after the bright star Aldebaran in the Zodiac constellation of Taurus the Bull!

In the same tank, I also have a snail.  Petco (where the pets go) says that it is a gold Inca snail (Pomacea bridgesii).  However, that scientific name seems connected to a snail that is colloquially called the mystery snail, so I'm not entirely certain what this snail is.  So I suppose the name "mystery snail" truly does seem appropriate!  Anyways, I named him Liam, after Liam Payne in the fantastic band One Direction.  This is what I do to people I like, I name snails after them.  Maybe next time I will upload a picture of my other snail, Zayn Malik.

Second to last, here is a picture of Wolverine, my baby California kingsnake!

Finally, here is a picture of someone who is not my pet, and is actually a pet of some friends of mine, Isabel and Sam Lippincott!  This is their dog Louis, who was actually attacked by a coyote.  He is fine now, and is going to make a full recovery!

Flickers on a Rainy Day

Rain makes lots of animals behave differently than they normally do. Many birds either take shelter or, like the American robin, head out to forage for drowning worms. The other day (and by other day, I mean several months ago, because I kept forgetting to post this post) during a rainstorm, I was walking with my friend Mona when we noticed a flicker stabbing repeatedly at the ground.

Here is a picture of the end result of what we were witnessing!

According to one source, the Puget Sound Backyard Birds, ants compose about 80% of a flickers diet, and foraging for this tasty insect snack is probably what the flicker was doing as it continually stabbed its beak into the ground! Even if it wasn't looking for ants, most of the flickers diet is insects. During the winter, when insects can become scarce, the flicker consumes berries and seeds. Certainly an unusual diet and foraging behavior for a woodpecker!

Below is a video uploaded by Deepa Mohan of a flicker foraging for food.  As you can see in the video, this flicker is foraging when the weather outside is not so frightful.  I assume that perhaps the flicker we saw was active while it was raining both because the insects would be scurrying around trying to find safe ground, and also probably because the ground was softer than usual.  

Like other woodpeckers, the flicker will nest in holes of trees, but will sometimes nest in the abandoned burrows of birds such as the belted kingfisher or the bank swallow, whose nests are located in holes within the earth.  Below is a picture of a pair of belted kingfishers flying into their nest:

Flickers are pretty common where I live, and they seem to be pretty common throughout the United States!  If you have any great flicker stories or pictures, make sure to send them in or comment below!

Works Cited:

Where Does the Canada Lynx Live: Using Common Names to Determine the Native Land of Various Animals

In a PREVIOUS POST, we started looking at different Latin and Greek roots, and how you can sometimes use these to tell a little about an animal, just by looking at its scientific name.  Today, we are going to learn an even more helpful skill: how to tell where some animals live, just by looking at their common name!

This can be a bit of a tough concept, so let's look at a few easier examples to start out.  First off, meet the lynx.  There are three species of lynx alive today, Lynx lynx, L. canadensis, and L. pardinus.  First off, let's look at Lynx lynx, commonly called the Eurasian lynx.  Let's try to figure out where this animal is from by breaking down its name.  Let's first try the "lynx" part of the name.  Can you think of anywhere in the world called "lynx?"  Neither can I, so let's try the first part of the name, "Eurasian."  Can you think of a place called "Eurasian?"  Although maybe not by that exact name, the word "Eurasian" is actually formed from combining the words "Europe" and "Asia," and is a term commonly used in biology, as there is not really a distinct geographic barrier that separates these two continents, as there is between, say, Asia and Australia.  So using this knowledge, where do you think the Eurasian lynx might live?

If you guessed Europe and Asia, then you were exactly right, as you can see in the range map of the Eurasian lynx below!  If you are still having a little trouble with this, go ahead and review the first paragraph before continuing on, and see if you can figure out why you got this question wrong.

Next, let's look at L. canadensis, commonly called the Canada lynx.  We've already established that "lynx" doesn't seem to refer to a place on Earth, so let's look at the "Canada" part of the name.  A quick Internet search comes up with an exotic country by the same name, "Canada."  Let's make a hypothesis about where the Canada lynx makes its home.

If you guessed "Canada," then you are spot on again, as you can see in the range map of the Canada lynx below!  Again, if you are still having some trouble, go ahead and review before you move on again.

Now, the third lynx, L. pardinus, is actually pretty tough.  Called the "Iberian lynx," this Critically Endangered cat is native to only a small bit of the "Iberian Peninsula," in Spain and Portugal.  I knew you guys weren't ready for this one yet, so that's why I skipped it.  Don't worry, you will have another shot at a tough one like this later.

There are actually four members of the genus Lynx, but we've only talked about three so far.  What about the fourth?  And can you tell where all animals live, just by using their common name?  You actually can't always tell, as we can see with Lynx rufus, commonly called the bobcat.  If you break down the name "bobcat" into its component parts, "bo" and "bcat," you can see that neither part of the name refers to a specific place in the world.

I know I'm moving pretty fast, so feel free to hang back for a minute or two if you need a moment for a breather, to recuperate.  Meanwhile, let's take a look at a few more examples.  First off, where do you think the recently discovered Omani owl is from?

As many of you guessed, the country of Oman is exactly right!  Although researchers aren't positive that this is a new owl as scientists haven't been able to closely examine a specimen, initial investigations indicate that this might be a brand new species of owl!

Let's look at the four living members of the penguin genus Spheniscus, Spheniscus mendiculus, S. magellanicus, S. humboldti, and S. demersus.  The first, S. mendiculus, is often called the Galápagos penguin.  Do you think it is named after the Galápagos Islands?  (For those of you who don't know where the Galápagos are, you can consult the map below the picture of the Galápagos penguin.)

Exactly right!  The Galápagos penguins is indeed found in the Galápagos!  The next two, S. magellanicus and S. humboldti, (the Magellanic and Humboldt penguins) aren't actually named for where they live: they are named for famous explorers!

A picture of a Humboldt penguin that I took at the Denver Zoo.

Finally, the African penguin, S. demersus.  You guys have got this by now, I think: where is the African penguin from?

A huddle of African penguins, also at the Denver Zoo.

You guys are getting so good at this, I don't think I need to do any more examples!  I do want to point out real fast that you always need to keep in mind whether the common name of these animals references a place on the globe, or something else.  For example the name of the great-horned owl doesn't refer to the fact that it lives in a place called "great-horn."  It merely refers to the fact that the owl appears to have two little horns on its head!

A picture of the great-horned owl that Anne Price and the folks at the Raptor Education Foundation bring to the raptor shows at the Best Western Denver Southwest dinosaur hotel!

And finally, just like the name of the great-horned owl, the name of the red-tailed hawk doesn't mean that the hawk is from "red-tail," it simply refers to the fact that the hawk has a red tail!

You guys sure did great: now go out there and try and make some new friends by telling them all of your new knowledge!

Flocks of Robins and Winter Territoriality

Where I live in Colorado, and in fact across much of North America, the American robin (Turdus migratorius) is a common sight, especially during the spring and summer.  You can often find this bird hopping across the ground, rooting around in the ground for worms.  However, this morning, on my walk across campus, I noticed a flock of about thirty or so robins in a random tree, and couldn't remember a time when I had seen so many robins in one place, not even close.  What was going on?

Just like for a robin, a little digging proved fruitful....or should I say wormful?  "The Great Backyard Bird Count" (GBBC) revealed that during the winter, the territoriality of the American robin decreases dramatically.  Two graphs on the website, which I have included below, help us to understand what is going on.  The first graph, titled "Percent Submissions With Positive Sightings," charts the number of people who see robins.  As you can see, the peak months for robin sightings are between the months of April and July, with a peak in July.  March, as well as August through October, are also pretty good times to see robins, but during the winter months between November and February, robins are not seen as often.

The second graph, titled "Average Number of Birds for Positive Sightings" charts how many robins people typically see together: i.e., if they report a robin sighting, they also report how many robins there were together.  As you can see, April through September are definitely the worst months to see multiple robins together, with October through February being the best time, and a large peak in November.

Graphs are tough: what does this all mean in English?  Essentially, during the breeding season (spring and summer), robins maintain strict territories, which causes them to spread out, with a more even distribution.  This means that you would be more likely to see a robin on a walk through the park, but not several robins in the same place.  During the winter, presumably because their breeding territories are simply too small for them to get enough food, and since it is no longer the breeding season, they abandon their territories, allowing different robins to go wherever they wish.  For whatever reason, probably something to do with mutual protection, they also form flocks.  The forming of flocks also causes the number of individuals per sighting to increase.

Another study conducted by the GBBC (read the full write-up HERE) pertained to snow depth and frequency of robin sightings.  As you can see in the graph below, the likelihood of spotting an American robin with even just a little bit of snow drops quite dramatically.  Similar results were reported for the red-winged blackbird, while birds such as the white-throated sparrow and northern flicker responded to increased snow depth as well, but not quite as dramatically.

For the robin, a bird that typically feeds on the ground, even just a little bit of snow cover might prove to be an issue.  However, other ground-feeding birds, such as the dark-eyed junco, didn't seem to mind the snow anywhere near as much as the robin.  GBBC suggested that other factors must affect the distribution of these birds, such as "weather, diet, and the species' normal range and altitudinal limits."

A subspecies of the dark-eyed junco called the gray-headed junco.  I took this picture of the stuffed animal when we were in Ouray over the summer.

A picture of a dark-eyed junco that I took in my backyard.

The GBBC devotes a paragraph to acknowledge the uncertainties in these results, a humility that I find refreshing and, sadly, not too common on many Internet sources these days.  GBBC looks at the graph below, plotting the snow depth against the likelihood of seeing a house finch, and notes the steady decline, as opposed to the sharp drop seen in the robin graph, or the lack of real pattern seen in the junco graph.  GBBC reports that this would be a pattern not expected if it was access to the ground (or lack thereof) that was causing these birds to move.  Instead, one would expect the sharp decline of the robin graph.  Other factors, such as temperature, could be what is causing birds like the house finch or the house sparrow to move.

A male house sparrow.

A female house finch, silhouetted against the backdrop of the evening sky.

Works Cited:

"Snow Depth Survey." The Great Backyard Bird Count. http://www.birdsource.org/gbbcX/science-stories/past-stories/snow-depth-survey (accessed January 23, 2014).

Stokes, Donald, and Lillian Stokes. The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010. (accessed January 23, 2014).

"Winter Robins." The Great Backyard Bird Count. http://www.birdsource.org/gbbcX/science-stories/past-stories/is-that-winter-flock-of-robins-in-your-yard-unusual/ (accessed January 23, 2014).

Winter Trivia Contest 2013 Results

Although I originally planned on having several rounds in our Winter Trivia Contest of 2013, I have decided to save the questions of the other rounds for later.  For now, here are the winners, followed by the answers to the trivia questions!  In first place, we have Carla, who got a 46/50!  As promised, her reward is a blog post with a topic of her choice, which is Top Ten Extinct Prehistoric Crocodilians: look for that post this week!  Second place goes to Alex Lambrecht, with 40/50!  And finally, we have Aidan Cook, who got 24/50!  Here are the answers to the questions!  See you guys for the next contest!

1.  Which of the following is NOT an archosaur? 

A.     American Alligator

B.     Tyrannosaurus rex

C.     Pteranodon

D.    Komodo dragon

E.     Stegosaurus

2.  Though they are called the “Buffaloes,” what is really the mascot of the University of Colorado in Boulder?

American Bison

3.  In terms of their names, name the odd one out:

A.     Dracorex

B.     Guanlong

C.     Triceratops

D.     Hippodraco

4.  What dinosaur is pictured here?  (1 point for a relatively close answer, 2 points for the correct answer.)

Amargasaurus

5.   Is Megalodon still alive today?  Should we trust Discovery Channel?

No, it most certainly is not, and no, we most certainly should not.

6.  Which of the following birds is made up? 

A.     Hammerkop

B.     Screwdriver-bill

C.     Helmeted Hornbill

D.     Shoe-bill

E.      Spoon-bill

7.  Which of the following species of snake is most closely related to the milk snake, Lampropeltis triangulatum?

A.     Corn Snake

B.     Anaconda

C.     Rattlesnake

D.    Kingsnake

E.     Pit Viper

8.  Which of the following is NOT a textbook case of convergent evolution:

A.     Thylacosmilus/Smilodon

B.     Musk Deer/Chinese Water Deer

C.     Mammoth/Mastodon

D.     Gray Wolf/Thylacine

9.  What in the world is THAT!  (1 point for a relatively close answer, 2 points for the correct answer.)

Binturong/Bear Cat

10.  For almost every single constellation that we recognize here on Earth, the stars that make up that constellation almost always have no physical relationship with each other, and just appear to be close together from here on Earth. Name the one major exception, known to the Japanese as “Subaru.”

The Pleiades

11. What shape is wombat poop? 

Cubic

12.  True or False: On average, hyenas scavenge more than lions.

False

13.  Some people think that the discovery of fossilized Protoceratops bones in the Gobi Desert was the inspiration behind what mythical creature?

A.     Dragon

B.     Griffin

C.     Mermaid

D.     Cyclops

E.      Centaur

14.  What’s wrong with this story: “As the giant man used his pocketknife to help him circumnavigate the great jungles of the Amazon Basin, he was startled by the abundant diversity of life.  He saw everything from piranha, macaws, and anaconda, and even saw a black leopard attack a javelina!”

Leopards don't live in South America.

15.  Dermal armor is a feature seen by all of the following except:

A.     Giant ground sloths

B.     Armadillos

C.     Pangolins

D.    Glyptodonts

E.     Ankylosaurs

F.     Clouded leopard

16.  All of the following dinosaurs have been discovered in the Morrison Formation, which has outcrops in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and several other states.  All, that is, except for which one? 

A.     Utahraptor

B.     Apatosaurus

C.     Stegosaurus

D.    Camptosaurus

E.     Allosaurus

F.     Gargoyleosaurus

17.  What is pictured here?

A.     Mosasaur

B.     Dinosaur

C.     Pterosaur

D.    Ichthyosaur

E.     Plesiosaur

F.     Dolphin

18.  What strange feature seen in the young hoatzin sets it apart from any other living birds, and forges a resemblance with its extinct ancestors like Archaeopteryx?

A.     Tentacles

B.     Claws on wings

C.     Teeth in mouth

D.     Marshmallows

E.      Flightlessness

19.  How many species of penguin live and breed in the Northern Hemisphere, above the Equator?

A.     Two, the African and Galápagos Penguin

B.     None, everyone knows penguins live at the South Pole

C.     None, everyone knows penguins live at the North Pole

D.    One, the African Penguin

E.     None, everyone knows penguins live in Antarctica

F.     One, the Galápagos Penguin

G.    None, penguins don’t exist

20.  What Triassic animal is pictured here, courtesy of Sam Lippincott?  (1 point for a relatively close answer, 2 points for the correct answer.)

Photo Credit: Sam Lippincott

Tanystropheus

21.  Why is it ironic when people kill bull snakes, mistaking them for rattlesnakes?

A.     Because bull snakes ARE rattlesnakes

B.     Because bull snakes kill and eat rattlesnakes

C.     Because bull snakes are more venomous than rattlesnakes

D.     Because rattlesnakes and bull snakes live on different continents

E.     Because bull snakes don’t exist

22.  A blast from the past: having been around for hundreds of millions of years, what is the name of this “living fossil?”  (1 point for a relatively close answer, 2 points for the correct answer.)

Horseshoe crab

23.  Which of the following is a habitat that you would NOT expect to find a kangaroo in?

A.     The Australian Outback

B.     In the forest canopy of New Guinea rainforests, 60 feet above the ground

C.     Swimming in the shallows of the Great Barrier Reef, consuming kelp and other             oceanic plants

D.    The Australia Zoo

E.    Oh, kangaroos definitely exist, I would just expect to find them in all of these                   locations.  After all, they ARE kangaroos.

24.  Which of the following is NOT a term used in reference to a past mass extinction? 

A.     K/T Event

B.     Cambrian Explosion

C.     The Great Dying

D.     Deccan Traps

25.  Scientific names too hard to remember?  That’s not the case for this “river horse.”

Hippopotamus

Thanks again for participating everyone, and see you next time!