Have a read of the following dinosaur 'facts' and see if you can work out which ones are true, and which ones are bluffs...
1) Breaking the speed limit!
Velociodocus could run as fast as 72 mph! That's faster than the speed limit in the UK, and it's also faster than the cheetah, which at 50-70 mph is the fastest living animal known today.
True or false?
2) A bite worse than its bark!
A Tyrannosaurus Rex's bite was more than twenty times as powerful as a lion's bite!
True or false?
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| Dinosaur eggs. Did they cause the extinction of the dinosaurs? |
3) Why the dinosaurs died out...
The largest dinosaur eggs were as large as basketballs! The shells were so thick that the dinosaur babies weren't able to get out! Some scientists believe this is what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
True or false?
4) The birds and the bees and the dinosaurs
Scientists don't know how dinosaurs mated. Presumably their parents haven't had 'the talk' with them yet.
True or false?
 |
| A photo of a stegosaurus. |
5) Walnut brained
Stegosauruses were as large as a medium sized van, but they had tiny brains - as small as the size of a walnut! Rumour has it that stegosauruses were so stupid that when they heard 90% of accidents happen at home, they moved!
True or false?
6) You old fossil!
The first dinosaur fossil was discovered in 1822, so before then nobody knew that dinosaurs ever existed!
True or false?
 |
| How dare they copy my high-pitched screech! |
7) How do they know?
Struthiomimus' name means 'ostrich mimic', and it was named because it made high-pitched screechy noises similar to an ostrich (allegedly).
You can listen to a struthiomimus screeching at the link below:
Listen to the struthiomimus' high-pitched screech.
True or false?
. . . . . . . .
Scroll down the page to find out which of the above 'facts' are real and which are made up...
Answers:
1) Breaking the speed limit!
 |
| I don't have a photo of velocidocus because they're not real. I just made them up! |
Velociodocus could run as fast as 72 mph! That's faster than the speed limit in the UK, and it's also faster than the cheetah, which at 50-70 mph is the fastest living animal known today.
False - I just made it up. In fact velociodocus doesn't even exist! Incidentally, if you're wondering how scientists can know how fast dinosaurs ran, they can make an approximate estimation by looking at the gaps between dinosaur footprints.
2) A bite worse than its bark!
 |
| "Raaarrrggghhhhh!" |
False - In actual fact a Tyrannosaurus' bite was only twice as powerful as a lion's bite. That's still a frighteningly powerful bite, but somehow it's a lot less impressive than I originally imagined before I looked up the answer.
3) Why the dinosaurs died out...
The largest dinosaur eggs were as large as basketballs! The shells were so thick that the dinosaur babies weren't able to get out! Some scientists believe this is what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
True and False - The largest dinosaur eggs were indeed as large as basketballs. However, the claim about the shells being so thick that the baby dinosaurs couldn't get out was obviously made-up. If dinosaur shells were so thick that the dinosaur babies were unable to get out, that would be quite foolish!
 |
| Stegosaurus. The picture relates to fact 5, but I moved it up to fact 4 just so that the pictures were spaced out a bit better. |
4) The birds and the bees and the dinosaurs
Scientists don't know how dinosaurs mated. Presumably their parents haven't had 'the talk' with them yet.
True - There is no general consensus on how dinosaurs mated. Which is quite surprising because most scientists usually love to jump on the bandwagon, but presumably when it comes to dinosaurs mating there is no mutually agreed bandwagon to jump upon as yet.
5) Walnut brained
Stegosauruses were as large as a medium sized van, but they had tiny brains - as small as the size of a walnut! Rumour has it that stegosauruses were so stupid that when they heard 90% of accidents happen at home, they moved!
True - Stegosauruses did indeed have brains the size of walnuts, although the bit about them moving home to avoid accidents was false obviously.
 |
| A dinosaur fossil, pictured at some point after 1822. |
6) You old fossil!
The first dinosaur fossil was discovered in 1822, so before then nobody knew that dinosaurs ever existed!
True - It's mad to think that as recently as two hundred years ago, nobody on Earth was aware of the existence of dinosaurs!
7) How do they know?
Struthiomimus' name means 'ostrich mimic', and it was named because it made high-pitched, screechy noises similar to an ostrich. You can listen to a struthiomimus' screeching at the link below:
Listen to the struthiomimus' high-pitched screech.
True and false - It's true that struthiomimus made a noise like an ostrich (allegedly, although until we invent time travel I'm not sure how this can be proven). However, obviously the link was false, because unfortunately struthiomimus died out before tape recorders were invented.
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My latest short story, 'The Ferociosaurus' doesn't feature any dinosaurs, but it does feature an exotic off-world creature which looks suspiciously like a dinosaur.
More true or false quizzes:
Funny horse names: A true or false quiz
Real word or fake? (part 3)
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