Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

The tallest animal's dining habits

Giraffes are browsers rather than grazers, and acacia leaves form the backbone of their diet across much of Africa. Their long tongues and tough lips let them strip foliage from branches well above the reach of other herbivores, and they can feed on thorny trees that most animals avoid. A giraffe's neck contains the same seven vertebrae as a human's, just far larger.

A tree that outgrew the dinosaurs' successors

The giant sequoia is the largest tree species on Earth by volume, with the most massive living specimens found in California's Sierra Nevada. Some individuals are estimated to be well over two thousand years old. Redwoods, by contrast, are the tallest trees, while the baobab is famous for its swollen, water-storing trunk on the African savanna.

A capital built as a compromise

Belmopan became the capital of Belize in 1970, after Hurricane Hattie devastated the former capital, Belize City, in 1961. Planners chose a site inland to reduce exposure to tropical storms. Belmopan is one of the world's smallest capital cities by population, which makes its role in this quiz a genuine piece of Central American history.

The many provinces of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse countries on the planet, with more than 800 languages spoken across its islands and highlands. Its provinces, 22 in total, reflect that diversity, ranging from the National Capital District around Port Moresby to remote island and highland regions. This fragmentation of language and culture is a direct legacy of the country's mountainous terrain.

The Cyclops and the birth of a myth

The Cyclops - the one-eyed giant of Greek mythology - appears most famously in Homer's Odyssey, where Odysseus blinds the shepherd Polyphemus to escape his cave. Some scholars have suggested the myth may have been inspired by ancient finds of elephant skulls, whose large central nasal opening can resemble a single eye socket. Whether or not that theory holds, the Cyclops remains one of the most recognisable figures in Western storytelling.