NRMjobs Quiz answers 29-April-2021

This week’s theme: ‘Pea’

(1) What is the common name of the twining, ground-hugging pea Kennedia prostrata?

Answer: Running postman.

(2) What is the distinctive, glossy black bulge at the centre of a Sturt desert pea petal called? (bonus: How many petals does a Sturt desert pea flower have?).

Answer: Boss (four petals).

(3) Which of the following is not a common name for Hardenbergia violacea? (a) Happy wanderer (b) False sarsaparilla (c) Purple coral pea (d) Native violet (e) Lilac vine.

Answer: (d) Native violet.

(4) Complete this Australian phrase: “Jumping up and down like the pea in a … …”

Answer: Referee’s whistle.

(5) What is the binomial name of the endangered, South East Australian plant known commonly as the Small purple pea or Mountain Swainson pea?

Answer: Swainsona recta.

NRMjobs Quiz answers 22-April-2021

This week’s theme: ‘Quail’

(1) Which of the following is not an Australian native species: (a) Brown quail (Coturnix ypsilophora) (b) Gambel’s quail (Callipepla gambelii) (c) King quail (Coturnix chinensis victoriae) (d) Stubble quail (Coturnix pectoralis).

Answer: (b) Gambel’s quail (native to California).

(2) What is the collective noun for a group of quails?

Answer: Bevy (‘covey’ or ‘quail’ also accepted).

(3) What does it mean “to quail”?

Answer: To be very afraid, to the point of trembling.

(4) Dan Quayle was Vice President to which US President?

Answer: George HW Bush.

(5) What is a baby quail called?

Answer: A chick.

NRMjobs Quiz answers 15-Apr-2021

This week’s theme: ‘Rings’

(1) What is the science of dating past events by studying annual growth rings in trees?

Answer: Dendrochronology.

(2) What is the nest of a ringtail possum called? (bonus: where does the word originate?).

Answer: Drey. (bonus: English term for a squirrel’s nest).

(3) Platycercus elegans and Platycercus eximius were once regarded by biologists as the two ends of a classic ring species, circling the arid inland (DNA studies have since disproved this theory). What are their common names?

Answer: Crimson rosella and Eastern rosella.

CORRECTION: The quiz master withdraws the above question (3), with apologies. The answer is still ‘rosella’, but it turns out the whole ring species thing with rosellas is far more complicated, and the question is fatally flawed and incorrect.

(4) The age of a bony fish can be determined by examining the annual rings laid down in what bone-like structure in its head?

Answer: Otolith.

(5) What is an elastrator?

Answer: A device used to apply rubber rings to castrate livestock (or for docking tails etc.).

NRMjobs Quiz answers 8-Apr-2021

This week’s theme: ‘Legs’

(1) Including the pincers, how many legs does a yabby have?

Answer: 10.

(2) The word ‘centipede’ means 100 legs, and individuals can have between 30 to 354 legs, depending on the species. But do any centipedes have exactly 100 legs?

Answer: No (centipedes always have an odd number of pairs of legs).

(3) The macropod species Thylogale stigmatica is commonly called the Red-legged …?

Answer: Pademelon.

(4) What is the difference between a tetrapod and a quadruped?

Answer: A tetrapod is any species descended from a four-limbed (Tetrapoda) ancestor, while a quadruped is any species which uses four limbs for locomotion.

(5) What kind of creature can have up 750 legs – more than any other known animal?

Answer: Millipede (Illacme plenipes, native to California).

NRMjobs Quiz answers 1-Apr-2021

This week’s theme: ‘April foolery’

(1) On 1 April, 1957 the BBC’s Panorama program broadcast a now-famous ‘documentary’ featuring the harvest of what tree fruit?

Answer: Spaghetti.

(2) On 1 April, 1975 what memorable prank involved the ABC TV program This Day Tonight, the Adelaide Town Hall and SA Deputy Premier Des Corcoran?

Answer: Announcement that Australia was converting to ‘metric time’.

(3) On 1 April, 1978 what prank did Australian businessman Dick Smith play on the city of Sydney?

Answer: Towed a fake iceberg into Sydney Harbour. 

(4) On 1 April, 2003, the Sydney Morning Herald published a review of a new restaurant, called Species, which supposedly featured what on its menu?

Answer: Endangered species.

(5) On 1 April, 2013 South Australia’s Monarto Zoo announced the birth of what strange animal?

Answer: A zebracorn (zebra with a unicorn horn).