Fauna, flora, ecosystems
Nature & Animals brings together everything about living things: fauna, flora and the ecosystems that link them. Questions range from rainforest to savannah, from coral reefs to the polar regions, and cover photosynthesis, food chains, pollination by bees, animal adaptations, the classification of species and the protection of biodiversity.
Playing is a way to revise what school biology teaches and to pick up surprising facts about mammals, birds, insects and plants. All the Nature & Animals quizzes are free: five difficulty levels from very easy to expert, and an explanation for each answer.
The 1960s Deinonychus paleontologist, the Bone Wars rivals, Toumaï's discovery site, the first Denisovan site and the earliest dinosaurs' age. Expert.
How dinosaurs split into two orders, the Great Dying, a feathered Chinese dinosaur of 1996, Gondwana's lands and a human nicknamed the hobbit. Hard.
Why Archaeopteryx matters, who named dinosaurs in 1842, an animal that was not a dinosaur, early humans leaving Africa and trilobites. Intermediate.
The dinosaurs' era, the crater tied to their extinction, the middle Mesozoic period, the Lucy fossil and amber. Easy prehistory quiz, free, 10 questions.
The tyrant lizard king, Triceratops's horns, what fossils are, a mammoth's modern cousin and when the dinosaurs vanished. Very easy, free, 10 questions.
The only living shelled cephalopod, the zone below 6,000 m, cleaner-fish relationships, the Pacific garbage patch and marine snow. Expert oceanography.
What fuels life around hydrothermal vents, the phylum of starfish, the sperm whale's prey, pinnipeds and shark electroreception. Hard, free, 10 questions.
Octopus hearts, the current warming Western Europe, the cause of coral bleaching, the largest fish and a tool-using marine mammal. Intermediate, free.
Who builds coral reefs, what a jellyfish has instead of a brain, how whales breathe, the blue whale's diet and the deepest trench. Easy, free.
The largest ocean, the biggest animal on Earth, an octopus's arms, the clownfish's home and what a dolphin is. Very easy, free ocean quiz, 10 questions.
Expert plant quiz: an early angiosperm found in amber, rare synchronized bamboo flowering, living pebbles, forest fungal networks and suction-trap plants.
A hard plant quiz on the world's largest flower, a 1000-year-old Namib succulent, the giant sequoia, hanging pitcher traps and the oldest conifers.
Intermediate plant quiz: an Asian aquatic symbol of purity, autumn leaf fall, koalas' tree, the climber behind beer hops and a threatened fragrant wood.
Easy plant quiz: a tree whose sap makes syrup, a snapping carnivorous plant, pandas' staple food, Provence's purple fragrance and a non-plant kingdom.
A very easy plant quiz: what absorbs water from the soil, the colorful part that draws bees, the Christmas tree, a sun-following flower and climbers.
Expert animal quiz: the mantis shrimp's lightning claws, a fish surviving in dried mud, blue-blooded horseshoe crabs and a record 11,000 km flight.
Hard animal quiz: a limb-regenerating amphibian, the unicorn tusk, New Zealand's flightless night bird, a deep-sea lure fish and a striped giraffe cousin.
Intermediate animal quiz: a giant-squid hunter diving past 2000 m, Africa's thickest skin, a hovering bird, a spitting snake and the strongest jaw force.
Easy animal quiz: the killer whale, insect metamorphosis, a sonar-using marine mammal, Asia's largest big cat and Europe-to-Africa bird migration.
Very easy animal quiz: a maned African big cat, a blowhole sea giant, an Australian pouch carrier, a night bird of prey and a river reptile. Free.
An ecosystem is a community made up of a physical environment, the biotope (soil, water, climate), and the living things that inhabit it, the biocenose. These parts interact constantly: a pond, a forest or a coral reef are all examples of ecosystems.
Using chlorophyll, green plants capture energy from sunlight to turn carbon dioxide from the air and water drawn from the soil into sugars, which they use as food. The process releases oxygen, which many living things breathe.
As bees move from flower to flower collecting nectar and pollen, they carry pollen between blooms and allow many flowering plants to be fertilised, including numerous fruit trees and crops. They are not the only pollinators: butterflies, hoverflies and bumblebees help too.