Trivia Contest of Winter 2013

Welcome to the Trivia Contest of the Winter 2013 here at The Natural World!  Here's how I think it's going to go down:

The contest will be composed of three rounds (possibly four or more if we have a bunch of people sign up, but I'm guessing three will probably do).  The dates that I put forth here are subject to change, but I will give you plenty of notice if this is the case.  Right now, I anticipate uploading the first round of questions within the next day or so, and you will have until Saturday the 28th to answer the questions.  I will include an answer sheet that you can email to me with your answers.  Please include your team name and the names of the team members.  I will figure out each teams score on the 28th, and upload the results to the blog.  That day, I will also upload the second round of questions.  You will have until that Friday, January 3rd to answer that round.  That Friday, I will again calculate the scores for round 2, and add them to your total score.  I'm not going to plan any further ahead than that for now.  Same goes for prizes: don't expect anything TOO huge, probably just a write up on the blog about something that you want me to write about, but stay tuned: if we have enough people participate, I might up the ante to something that you all might actually want!  Oh, and also, bragging rights, and a place of championship on the blog's right sidebar, until our next trivia contest!

The questions will focus heavily on animals, both living and extinct.  There will also be several questions (probably about 25% overall) that don't really fall into either category, including topics such as astronomy, Latin/Greek roots, riddles, and some scientific terms relating to the natural sciences.

Who or what can you consult in your quest for answers?  Your team mates, for starters.  I obviously have no way of enforcing these rules, but I would like this to be more of a contest in which you use your own knowledge, and not display your prowess in regards to surfing the Internet.  So for Round 1, which has 25 questions, I think I will ask that you use your own knowledge and the knowledge of your teammates for all except for three questions.  One question, you can post to Facebook and ask your Facebook friends to help you.  (If you don't have a Facebook, I suppose just call a friend).  A second question, you can look up on the Internet.  Finally, a third question you can search for on the blog.  Most, but not all, of these questions can be at least partially answered by various posts on the blog.  Again, I have no way of enforcing these rules, so let's just try and keep it on the up and up!

There is no age limit for this contest, and there is no level of experience that is required, although a rudimentary knowledge of animals and/or dinosaurs definitely can't hurt!  I hope this proves to be as much fun as I hope it will be, and any feedback that you all have will definitely prove beneficial in the future!  I think I've covered pretty much everything, but if you have any questions, don't hesitate to inform me.  I will address future problems as they come up!  My email is tnaturalworld1@gmail.com, I look forward to hearing from all of you!