5Quizzes
Paleontology
Unearth the history of life on Earth. Our paleontology quizzes cover fossil types, the geologic time scale, dinosaur basics, human evolution, and the mass extinctions that shaped our world. Dig in and test your knowledge!
Fossil Types
Molds, casts, trace fossils, and true-form fossils.
Mass Extinctions
Focus on the Permian-Triassic and Cretaceous-Paleogene extinctions.
Geologic Time Scale
Identify the major Eras (Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic).
Human Evolution
Key hominid species like Australopithecus and Homo erectus.
Dictionary
Key Paleontology Terms
Plain definitions, with how to say each word and where it comes from.
- Cambrian explosion
The Cambrian explosion is the relatively rapid appearance of most major animal groups in the fossil record, beginning about 540 million years ago.
- Dinosaur
A dinosaur is a member of the reptile group Dinosauria, which dominated life on land for most of the Mesozoic Era and survives today as the birds.
- Extinction
Extinction is the permanent loss of a species, which happens when the last living individual of that species dies.
- Fossil
A fossil is any preserved evidence of past life in rock or sediment, from bones, shells and leaves to footprints and burrows.
- Geologic time scale
The geologic time scale divides Earth's 4.6-billion-year history into eons, eras, periods and epochs, marked by events in the rock record.
- Hominin
A hominin is any member of the human lineage, the group of species, including modern humans, that are more closely related to us than to chimpanzees.
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