Today is National Dinosaur Day, which is a perfect excuse to dust off your dinosaur knowledge and see if you're smarter than a fourth grader.
Fun fact: dinosaurs actually get TWO celebrations every year. There's International Dinosaur Day in May and National Dinosaur Day on June 1st. Because apparently one dinosaur holiday wasn't enough.
A recent survey asked more than 1,000 American adults a simple question:
How many dinosaurs can you name off the top of your head?
The results suggest many adults are letting dinosaur-loving kids down.
Nine percent of people admitted they couldn't name a single dinosaur. Another 8% said they could only name one. Meanwhile, 25% confidently claimed they could name five or more dinosaurs, and 7% said they could name ten or more.
Then researchers did something cruel.
They made people actually write down the dinosaurs they knew.
Suddenly things got Jurassic.
A whopping 84% of people named fewer dinosaurs than they predicted they could. Only 15% matched their estimate, and just 2% exceeded expectations.
Even more surprising, 16% of people who thought they could name one dinosaur couldn't come up with any at all.
Seriously? Not even Tyrannosaurus Rex?
Somewhere, a Triceratops is shaking its head in disappointment.
Only 16% of participants successfully named five or more dinosaurs, far fewer than the 25% who originally thought they could.
Special recognition goes to the elite 2% who managed to name ten or more dinosaurs. They're probably one of three things:
- Dinosaur enthusiasts
- Museum employees or teachers
- Parents who have watched the same dinosaur documentary 500 times with their kids
The survey proves something we've all learned in life: we're usually a lot more confident about our knowledge than we should be.
So let's put Mid-Michigan to the test.
Without Googling...
How many dinosaurs can YOU name?
T-Rex, Triceratops, Velociraptor, Stegosaurus, Brontosaurus...
Can you get to ten?
Or are you about to discover you're not quite the paleontologist you thought you were?
