1. Today, April 23, is celebrated in honour of a saint who was supposed to have slain a mighty dragon who was going to eat the king’s daughter. Centuries later, a certain building was built in Madras to secure the harbour, and since its construction was finished on April 23 it was named in the Saint’s honour. What building is it and what does it house now?
2. This time period spans 56 million years and is known as the ‘Age of the Reptiles’. Named after a mountain range in the western Alps, this period was when huge herbivore dinosaurs roamed the Earth. In popular entertainment, it is usually shown to be over-run by ferocious carnivores, but unfortunately that’s all false, as these carnivores lived almost a million years after this period. What is the name of this peaceful and really long period?
3. Jahangir was a Mughal Emperor who ruled during the early 1600s. He was an avid collector of art and a keen ornithologist, so he commissioned his court artist Ustad Mansur to do a painting of a few of his favourite birds from his personal collection. This lovely painting is extremely important to scientists as it is anatomically correct and is the only known colour depiction of a living specimen of which bird?
4. Elon Musk has changed the face of space exploration with his creations. His ground-breaking reusable spacecraft is named ‘Dragon, in tribute to a character created by college student Leonard Lipton. Though various people have tried to discredit this character saying he is a masked reference to drug use, it has been made clear that that was not the case and is only about children growing up and leaving their childhood behind. Who is this lovable character who apparently lived by the sea?
5. Having been around for 300 million years, these fellows are expert fliers. They can move straight up or down, fly backwards, stop and hover, and make hairpin turns at full speed (48 km/h) or in slow motion and even mate mid-air. They will starve if they can’t fly, because they only eat prey they catch while flying. And they breathe through their butt. What is this dynamic D-animal?
6. This animal has acute eyesight in and out of water and can hear frequencies 10 times the upper limit of humans. However, it has no sense of smell and relies on sonar for hunting. A trait these animals have, which the quizmaster is envious of, is an ability to shut off half the brain while sleeping, ensuring that at all times one half of the brain is working. What delightful D-animal is this?
7. This is one of the very few mammals which are venomous. It hunts by tracking electrical signals like a shark. Because it has no teeth it uses gravel to break down food like a bird. And it doesn’t have a stomach. When it was first discovered and taken for classification the scientists thought it was a prank played on them. What is this disorienting D-animal?
8. The Dugong is a highly endangered marine herbivorous mammal. Along with its relative, the Sea cow, it belongs to a certain order of animals named because of an apparent resemblance to a group of beings in Greek mythology. These were dangerous creatures, who lured sailors with their voices to shipwreck on their island. We use the same word today to also mean an audible alarm (like their voices). What is the order?
9. This bird is also called a ‘Snake bird’ in reference to its long thin neck, which has a snake-like appearance when it swims with its bodies submerged. But its D-name results from its manner of procuring food, as it impale fishes with its thin, pointed beak. What is this deft D-bird?
10. This is a genus of flying lizards which technically glide by jumping off trees (Leapin’ Lizards!). Carl Linnaeus derived the name of this genus from the Latin term for mythological dragons. Some of the younger readers of this quiz may recognise the genus name from another fictional character, who in his case flew with assistance from a household cleaning device. What diabolical sounding D-genus is this?
Bonus: What deterministic D-molecule was decoded on April 25 by Rosalind Franklin, Watson&Crick, which changed the world of biology forever?
Answers
1. St. Georges Fort, the house of the Tamil Nadu state Legislative assembly.
2. Jurassic
3. The Dodo. Two were gifted to Jahangir by Dutch traders. He was one of the first people to record observations of animals and birds.
4. Puff the magic dragon. Lipton wrote the song on Peter Yarrow’s typewriter and forgot to take the sheet out. Peter found it and with his band ‘Peter, Paul & Mary’ made it famous. Do give this lovely song a listen right away!
5. Dragonflies
6. Dolphin
7. Duck-billed Platypus
8. Siren
9. Darter or Dart bird
10. Draco
Bonus: DNA. Happy DNA day!
A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’.
