1
What organ was once believed to be completely useless before scientists discovered its role in immune function?
The appendix
The thymus
The rectum
The tonsils
2
What celestial body was long taught to be a planet until it was officially reclassified in 2006?
Pluto
Sedna
Haumea
Neptune
3
What continent was once taught to be the only one without native dinosaur fossils, a claim later disproven?
Antarctica
Asia
Iceland
South America
4
Old maps and textbooks depicted California as what geographical feature until the 18th century?
An island
A mountain range
A peninsula
A jungle landscape
5
Early 20th-century textbooks claimed ulcers were caused by stress and spicy food. What organism is now known to cause most ulcers?
Escherichia coli
Salmonella enterica
Staphylococcus aureus
Helicobacter pylori bacteria
6
What was once believed to be the cause of malaria before the discovery of mosquito transmission?
Poisonous frogs
Tainted food
Decomposing animals
Bad air
7
What extinct bird was once thought to have gone extinct because it was "stupid" and unwilling to move out of harm’s way?
The Carolina parakeet
The wandering albatross
The moa
The dodo
8
What writing system was once considered impossible to decipher until the Rosetta Stone provided a key?
Ancient Greek alphabet
Indus Valley symbols
Mayan glyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphics
9
Schoolbooks once claimed that camels store water in their humps. What do they actually store?
Honey
Fat
Sand
Grapes
10
Before 2012, what elementary particle had never been confirmed, leading textbooks to describe it as only theoretical?
The photon
The Higgs boson
The muon
The quark