Natural History Quiz

Natural history encompasses the study of organisms and the natural world - Their origins, evolution, classification, behavior, and the geological and environmental processes that have shaped life on Earth over billions of years. Natural history museums around the world house incredible collections of fossils, specimens, and artifacts that document the extraordinary story of life on our planet. From the formation of Earth 4.5 billion years ago to the emergence of modern humans 300,000 years ago, natural history spans timescales that are almost incomprehensible to the human mind.

Evolution, Extinction, and Deep Time

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, published in "On the Origin of Species" (1859), revolutionized our understanding of how life changes over time. Natural selection - The process by which organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and reproduce more successfully - Is the primary mechanism of evolutionary change. Over billions of years, this process has produced the extraordinary diversity of life on Earth, from bacteria to blue whales. Mass extinction events - Including the one that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago - Have periodically reset the evolutionary landscape, creating opportunities for new groups to diversify and dominate. Check out our science quiz for more natural science!

The geological time scale organizes Earth's 4.5-billion-year history into eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. The Cambrian Explosion (about 540 million years ago) saw an unprecedented diversification of complex animal life. The Carboniferous period (358-299 million years ago) produced the coal deposits that powered the Industrial Revolution. The Mesozoic Era (252-66 million years ago) was the age of dinosaurs. The Cenozoic Era (66 million years ago to present) is the age of mammals. Understanding deep time - Periods so vast that they challenge human intuition - Is one of natural history's greatest gifts to science. This quiz tests your natural history knowledge. Try our space quiz for more Earth and cosmos content!