Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Life · Unit 1
What Is a Dinosaur?
What dinosaurs were, when they lived and how we name them
Dinosaur is a precise term, not a general word for large extinct animals, and getting the definition right removes about half the confusion people carry about the subject.
The unit covers what actually makes an animal a dinosaur, when they lived, the enormous range of sizes involved, how species get their names, and the famous prehistoric animals that are not dinosaurs at all.
This unit breaks down into 19 short steps and 113 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 2. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.
- Steps
- 19
- Questions
- 113
- Difficulty
- 1-2
What this unit covers
- Animals That Are Not Dinosaurs
- What a Dinosaur Is
- When Dinosaurs Lived
- Big and Small Dinosaurs
- Dinosaur Names
Where this fits
The first unit in the track. Everything else depends on the definition set here.
Where people slip
Pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, mammoths and Dimetrodon are not dinosaurs. Dimetrodon is closer to you than to Tyrannosaurus.
How the unit is structured
What Is a Dinosaur? runs as 19 short steps that unlock in order. 14 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 2 as you progress.
Challenge rounds
Example questions
30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 113 in the unit altogether.
Animals That Are Not Dinosaurs
- Choose all that applyLevel 1
1. Which of these were NOT dinosaurs? Pick all that apply.
- Pterosaurscorrect
- Plesiosaurscorrect
- Mammothscorrect
- Tyrannosaurus
Pterosaurs, plesiosaurs and mammoths all lived alongside or after dinosaurs but were different animals.
- Fact or fibLevel 1
2. Crocodiles are close relatives of dinosaurs, but they are not dinosaurs.
Answer: True
True. Crocodiles are cousins on a nearby branch of the reptile family tree.
- Fill the blankLevel 1
3. Dinosaurs lived on ____, not in the sea or the sky.
- landcorrect
- ice
- clouds
- coral
Dinosaurs were land animals, though birds later took to the air.
- Multiple choiceLevel 1
4. Were the big swimming reptiles of the sea dinosaurs?
- No, they were sea reptiles
- Yes, they were swimming dinosaurs
- Yes, they were fish
- They were whales
No. Sea reptiles like plesiosaurs were a separate group from dinosaurs.
- Odd one outLevel 1
5. Which of these is NOT a dinosaur?
- Pterodactylcorrect
- Triceratops
- Stegosaurus
- Diplodocus
The Pterodactyl was a flying reptile. The others are dinosaurs.
- Sort into groupsLevel 1
6. Sort each animal as a dinosaur or not a dinosaur.
Answer: Triceratops = Dinosaur; Allosaurus = Dinosaur; Pteranodon = Not a dinosaur; Dimetrodon = Not a dinosaur
Only land reptiles with upright legs in the right family count as dinosaurs.
Big and Small Dinosaurs
- Fact or fibLevel 1
7. Every dinosaur was bigger than an elephant.
Answer: False
False. Many were the size of a dog or a chicken.
- Fill the blankLevel 1
8. A dinosaur about the size of a chicken would be called a ____ dinosaur.
- smallcorrect
- giant
- heavy
- tall
Small dinosaurs really did exist alongside the giants.
- Multiple choiceLevel 1
9. Which kind of dinosaur was the very largest?
- The long-necked plant eaterscorrect
- The small feathered hunters
- The armoured ones
- The flying ones
The long-necked sauropods were the biggest land animals that have ever lived.
- Sort into groupsLevel 1
10. Sort each dinosaur as very big or quite small.
Answer: Brachiosaurus = Very big; Argentinosaurus = Very big; Compsognathus = Quite small; Velociraptor = Quite small
Dinosaurs came in every size, from chicken-sized to gigantic.
- True or falseLevel 1
11. Some of the biggest dinosaurs were longer than a tennis court.
Answer: True
True. Giants such as Argentinosaurus were over thirty metres long.
- Choose all that applyLevel 2
12. Which helped giant sauropods carry their weight? Pick all that apply.
- Thick pillar-like legscorrect
- Air-filled hollow bonescorrect
- A long tail to balance the neckcorrect
- Wings for lift
Pillar-like legs, hollow bones and a long tail balancing the neck all helped.
Dinosaur Names
- Build the sentenceLevel 1
13. Build a sentence about dinosaur bones.
Answer: Fossils are bones turned to stone
Fossils are bones that have turned to stone.
- Choose all that applyLevel 1
14. Which of these are real dinosaur names? Pick all that apply.
- Allosauruscorrect
- Diplodocuscorrect
- Ankylosauruscorrect
- Mammothosaurus
Allosaurus, Diplodocus and Ankylosaurus are all real dinosaurs.
- Match the pairsLevel 1
15. Match each dinosaur name to what it means.
Answer: Tyrannosaurus = Tyrant lizard; Triceratops = Three-horned face; Stegosaurus = Roof lizard; Velociraptor = Swift thief
Dinosaur names describe the animal, usually in Greek or Latin.
- Fact or fibLevel 2
16. Most dinosaur species that ever lived have probably never been found.
Answer: True
True. Fossilisation is rare, so the known list is only a fraction of the real diversity.
- Fill the blankLevel 2
17. A dinosaur name usually has two parts, and the first part is the ____ name.
- genuscorrect
- country
- museum
- colour
The genus name comes first, like Tyrannosaurus in Tyrannosaurus rex.
- Guess the numberLevel 2
18. Roughly how many new dinosaur species are named each year in recent decades?
Answer: 45 species
Around forty to fifty new species have been named annually in recent years.
What a Dinosaur Is
- Choose all that applyLevel 1
19. Which are true of dinosaurs? Pick all that apply.
- They laid eggscorrect
- They lived on landcorrect
- Their legs were under the bodycorrect
- They all flew
They laid eggs, lived on land and held their legs beneath the body.
- Fact or fibLevel 1
20. Cave people hunted dinosaurs with spears.
Answer: False
False. The last big dinosaurs died out about 66 million years before people appeared.
- Fill the blankLevel 1
21. Baby dinosaurs hatched out of ____.
- eggscorrect
- caves
- nests of ice
- shells of gold
Like birds and many reptiles, dinosaurs laid eggs.
- Multiple choiceLevel 1
22. What were dinosaurs?
- Reptiles that lived on land long agocorrect
- Big fish that lived in the sea
- Insects that lived in trees
- Machines made by people
Dinosaurs were a group of reptiles that lived on land millions of years ago.
- Picture questionLevel 1
23. 🦕 Which animal group is shown here?
- A dinosaurcorrect
- A crocodile
- A whale
- A bear
This is a dinosaur, a land reptile from millions of years ago.
- True or falseLevel 1
24. Dinosaurs lived millions of years before there were any people.
Answer: True
True. No human ever saw a living Tyrannosaurus.
When Dinosaurs Lived
- Fill the blankLevel 1
25. An animal with no members left alive is called ____.
- extinctcorrect
- asleep
- hidden
- tiny
Extinct means gone for ever.
- Guess the numberLevel 1
26. About how many millions of years ago did the last big dinosaurs disappear?
Answer: 66 million years
The great extinction happened about 66 million years ago.
- Multiple choiceLevel 1
27. How long ago did the last big dinosaurs die out?
- About 66 million years agocorrect
- About 100 years ago
- About 2000 years ago
- Last summer
They died out about 66 million years ago.
- Put in orderLevel 1
28. Put these in order from longest ago to most recent.
Answer: Dinosaurs -> Mammoths -> The first people -> Modern cities
Dinosaurs came first, then mammoths in the ice ages, then people, then cities.
- True or falseLevel 1
29. Stegosaurus was already extinct long before Tyrannosaurus rex appeared.
Answer: True
True. More time separates them than separates T. rex from us.
- Type the answerLevel 1
30. What word means an animal group that has died out completely?
Answer: extinct
When no members are left, the group is extinct.
Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.
How you practise
This unit mixes 14 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.
- Build the sentence
- Choose all that apply
- Fact or fib
- Fill the blank
- Guess the number
- Match the pairs
- Multiple choice
- Odd one out
- Picture question
- Put in order
- Sort into groups
- Spell it
- True or false
- Type the answer
Practise What Is a Dinosaur?
113 questions across 19 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.
Play this unitRead about What Is a Dinosaur?
Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.
- What Lived in the Seas During the Age of Dinosaurs?Meet ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, the marine reptiles that were not dinosaurs at all.August 28, 2026 · 6 min read
- How Do We Know What Dinosaurs Looked Like?From bones to muscles to skin and colour, here is how palaeontologists rebuild an animal nobody has ever seen.August 28, 2026 · 6 min read
More units in Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Life
- Famous DinosaursTyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and the other stars
- Meat Eaters and Plant EatersTeeth, claws, defences and what dinosaurs ate
- Fossils and Fossil HuntingWhat fossils are, how they form and how they are found
- The Age of DinosaursTriassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous, and how deep time works
- Eggs, Nests and Growing UpDinosaur eggs, nests, babies and family life
- Flying and Swimming ReptilesPterosaurs, plesiosaurs and the sea monsters that were not dinosaurs
- The Great ExtinctionThe asteroid, the volcanoes and who survived
- Dinosaurs and BirdsFeathers, Archaeopteryx and the dinosaurs still alive today