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Olorotitan was a large duck-billed dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Asia. It is best known for the tall, elegant crest on top of its head, which gave it a very distinctive profile compared with other hadrosaurs. As a lambeosaurine, it belonged to the group of crested duck-billed dinosaurs that l
Oviraptor was a small, lightly built theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Asia. It is one of the most famous feathered dinosaurs and is especially well known for the misunderstanding behind its name. Early researchers thought it had been caught stealing eggs, which led to the name “egg thi
Pentaceratops was a large horned dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of what is now the southwestern United States. It is best known for its enormous skull, deep frill, strong beak, and long facial horns. Among ceratopsians, Pentaceratops stands out as one of the most impressive skull-bearing animals
Sauroposeidon was a giant long-necked plant-eating dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of North America. It is famous for its extraordinary neck vertebrae, which suggest that it was one of the tallest dinosaurs ever discovered. Although it is sometimes mentioned alongside the biggest sauropods of all
Pterodactylus was a small flying reptile from the Late Jurassic of Europe. It was not a dinosaur, although it lived at the same time as many dinosaurs and is often grouped with them in popular media. As a pterosaur, it belonged to a different branch of reptile evolution specialized for powered fligh
A grizzly bear and a gorilla are both incredibly strong mammals, but they are built for very different lives. A grizzly is a large North American bear with long claws, a powerful bite, heavy shoulders, and predatory defense skills. A gorilla is a highly intelligent African great ape with strong arms
Bears and lions are both powerful mammals, but they are built for different lives. Lions are social big cats designed for speed, teamwork, and hunting large prey. Bears are heavier, stronger-bodied omnivores with massive forelimbs, long claws, and great endurance. In a direct size-and-strength compa
Groundhogs and beavers are both large rodents, but they are very different animals. A groundhog is a land-dwelling marmot that digs burrows in fields, gardens, and woodland edges. A beaver is a semi-aquatic rodent that lives near water, builds lodges and dams, and has a broad flat tail. The fastest
Tundra animals are wildlife species adapted to cold, windy, treeless environments where winters are long, summers are short, and food can be scarce. Famous tundra animals include Arctic foxes, polar bears, caribou, musk oxen, snowy owls, lemmings, Arctic hares, ptarmigan, wolves, and migratory birds
The “24,000-year-old animal revived” was not a mammoth, dinosaur, or large Ice Age beast. It was a microscopic animal called a bdelloid rotifer. Scientists recovered it from ancient Siberian permafrost, thawed it under laboratory conditions, and found that it could return to active life and reprod
The “pookoo animal” usually refers to the puku, a medium-sized African antelope scientifically known as Kobus vardonii. Pukus live mainly in wet grasslands, floodplains, dambos, and river-edge habitats in parts of central and southern Africa. They are sandy-brown grazers, usually stay close to wat
A groundhog is a type of marmot, but not all marmots are groundhogs. “Marmot” refers to a group of large ground squirrels in the genus Marmota. The groundhog, also called the woodchuck, is one species: Marmota monax. Groundhogs usually live in lowlands, fields, forest edges, and suburban areas, wh
A rooster is a chicken, but not every chicken is a rooster. “Chicken” is the general name for the domesticated bird species Gallus gallus domesticus. A rooster is an adult male chicken. A hen is an adult female chicken. Roosters usually have larger combs, longer tail feathers, pointed neck feather
The “hot dog thing” in an animal cell is usually the mitochondrion. If there is more than one, they are called mitochondria. Mitochondria are bean-shaped or sausage-shaped organelles that help turn food molecules and oxygen into usable energy for the cell. They are often called the “powerhouses o
A black panther is not a separate species, while a jaguar is a real big cat species. In the Americas, a “black panther” usually means a melanistic jaguar: a jaguar with extra dark pigment. In Africa or Asia, a black panther usually means a melanistic leopard. So a black panther can be a jaguar, bu
A liger and a tigon are both lion-tiger hybrids, but they are not the same animal. A liger has a male lion father and a female tiger mother, while a tigon has a male tiger father and a female lion mother. Ligers usually grow much larger than both parent species, while tigons are usually closer to li
Bobcats and mountain lions are both wild cats, but they are very different animals. A bobcat is a medium-sized lynx with a short “bobbed” tail, spotted coat, and tufted ears. A mountain lion is much larger, with a long tail, plain tawny coat, and powerful body. If you see a large cat with a tail a
Mastodons and mammoths were both extinct elephant-like mammals, but they were not the same animal. Mammoths were closer relatives of modern elephants and usually had high-domed skulls, long curved tusks, and ridged teeth for grazing. Mastodons belonged to a more distant branch, had flatter heads, st