Scientifically, there is a difference between shrimp and prawns.
They have different types of gills and they have different legs.
Prawns have branching gills, shrimp have plate-like gills.
Prawns have claws on 3 pairs of legs, shrimp have claws on 2 pairs of legs.
They are only the "same" in that people use the terms shrimp and prawn to refer to either. American English speakers tend to use the word shrimp and British English speakers tend to use the word prawn to refer to both shrimp and prawns.
But scientifically, as the quiz asks, there is a difference.
According to the crustacean taxonomist Tin-Yam Chan, "The terms shrimp and prawn have no definite reference to any known taxonomic groups. Although the term shrimp is sometimes applied to smaller species, while prawn is more often used for larger forms, there is no clear distinction between both terms and their usage is often confused or even reverse in different countries or regions."
Sorry to be a pain, but from what I have read I believe stevediverse is correct. Prawn and Shrimp are different species: Prawns are in the suborder Dendobranchiata, while shrimp are in suborder Pleocyemata, the differences stated by Steve are correct. Just saying.
I find it impressive that you are able to quote suborders from memory, but also strange that you don't post a relevant Wikipedia article to back this up.
@stevediverse Regarding the quote from the crustacean taxonomist that I didn't provide a link for... you can find it in the "Shrimp vs Prawn" section which appears on the wikipedia pages for both "Shrimp" and "Prawn".
Alrighty, I went down the rabbit hole on this one and I can definitively say that shrimp and prawns are definitively different taxonomically. Look up Caridea on Wikipedia. This is the most common thing called a shrimp, and it has the nickname “true shrimp”. This article says that shrimps in Caridea are more closely related to lobsters than to…… prawns!!! It says that prawns belong to the suborder Dendrobranchiata. But the thing is that for Britain and the USA they use either prawn and shrimp as a catch all for both. Incidentally, there is certainly a distinction between shrimp and prawn in some species. It would be odd to refer to a mantis shrimp as a mantis prawn, although the mantis shrimp is a different sub family.
where they identify specific species of fresh water prawns and marine shrimp. I believe the prawns are also identified as Macrobrachium rosenbergii, so I guess the scientific community has some basic rules about what makes a prawn and what makes a shrimp. I suppose this isn’t a taxonomy article, but I think the best conclusion is that the common usage has very little to do with scientific distinctions between these organisms. The “true shrimp”, AKA Caridea suborder, and Macrobrachium rosenbergii, or the commercial freshwater prawn, are definitely different.
You’ve got more people providing evidence of scientific differences between the two than you have people backing up your beliefs on the names of these different animals. You should change the answer rather than be stubborn because you don’t like it
Well, in fairness, the common use of shrimp and prawn isn’t based at all on science and it changes depending where you are in the world. I don’t think Quizmaster is necessarily wrong here… there’s a scientific difference in a lot of cases, but I’m sure some people call the fresh water prawn a shrimp. I think the point to be taken away is that shrimp and prawn in general usage isn’t at all based on science. Plus, you know, Quizmaster makes a heck of a lot of high-quality quizzes that thousands enjoy, so I wouldn’t say it’s stubbornness that prevents him from endlessly changing every little detail in quizzes.
The fact that you use the term "British English" suggests that you're American, and this Prawn/Shrimp distinction is purely an American idea. The quiz is correct, the words are used interchangeably.
Good little quiz. Nice variety of questions. The image of a 40,000-eyed tarantula evoked some kind of all-seeing Lovecraftian horror. I like it. Had to make an educated guess on the chicken one, despite owning chickens. I figured the rooster was the symbol of France and that name sounded, well, Gallic.
Nice quiz, but a meerkat is actually a type of mongoose and yes, they occasionally hunt cobras, particularly the Cape cobra, though insects, scorpions etc make up most of their diet. So both "meerkat" and "mongoose" are correct for question 9, though admittedly other types of mongoose (particularly larger species such as the slender mongoose) tend to hunt snakes such as cobras more regularly than their smaller meerkat cousins.
Agree with RhymingCouplet, a meerkat is a mongoose
"Definition of meerkat: any of several African mongooses especially : a burrowing highly social primarily insectivorous mammal (Suricata suricatta) of southern Africa that is chiefly grayish with faint black markings and lives in usually large colonies."
I thank Pokémon for that. Specifically, Zangoose. "Zangoose, the Cat Ferret Pokémon. Zangoose have battled against Seviper for many generations, and their sharp claws are their best weapons."
According to https://www.thesprucepets.com (and most of what I found on Google, it's 5-10), Rabbits live 5-9 years in the wild while according to birdfact.com and birdspecies.com, crows live 7-8 years. Although the average is higher on crows, the maximum for rabbits appears to be higher.
I don't think that is accurate. According to Wikipedia:
"The lifespan of wild rabbits is much shorter; the average longevity of an eastern cottontail, for instance, is less than one year."
In any case, that is not what the question asks. The question asks for maximum lifespan. The record for the oldest rabbit is 18 years. For crows, the record is 59 years.
Logically they question should be taken off because it has nothing to do with the theme of the quiz!
"Can you answer these multiple choice questions about animals?" - Which animal is this question about?
They have different types of gills and they have different legs.
Prawns have branching gills, shrimp have plate-like gills.
Prawns have claws on 3 pairs of legs, shrimp have claws on 2 pairs of legs.
They are only the "same" in that people use the terms shrimp and prawn to refer to either. American English speakers tend to use the word shrimp and British English speakers tend to use the word prawn to refer to both shrimp and prawns.
But scientifically, as the quiz asks, there is a difference.
According to the crustacean taxonomist Tin-Yam Chan, "The terms shrimp and prawn have no definite reference to any known taxonomic groups. Although the term shrimp is sometimes applied to smaller species, while prawn is more often used for larger forms, there is no clear distinction between both terms and their usage is often confused or even reverse in different countries or regions."
But since you cite it (without a link), here's a wikipedia article that says they are different, but similar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrimp_and_prawn_as_food
And note, there is a distinction between their zoological classification and the words people use in everyday language and to refer to them as food.
Most of the articles I see talk about the colloquial meaning of the words and aren't written by biologists.
https://www.whatsthediff.org/blog/2018/07/17/whats-the-difference-between-shrimp-and-prawns/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/prawns-vs-shrimp
The question asks for a "scientific" difference, not a difference invented by people in the fishing or culinary industry in recent years.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=prawn+shrimp&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DB2lgAe6nfsYJ
where they identify specific species of fresh water prawns and marine shrimp. I believe the prawns are also identified as Macrobrachium rosenbergii, so I guess the scientific community has some basic rules about what makes a prawn and what makes a shrimp. I suppose this isn’t a taxonomy article, but I think the best conclusion is that the common usage has very little to do with scientific distinctions between these organisms. The “true shrimp”, AKA Caridea suborder, and Macrobrachium rosenbergii, or the commercial freshwater prawn, are definitely different.
"Definition of meerkat: any of several African mongooses especially : a burrowing highly social primarily insectivorous mammal (Suricata suricatta) of southern Africa that is chiefly grayish with faint black markings and lives in usually large colonies."
Merriam-Webster.com
"The lifespan of wild rabbits is much shorter; the average longevity of an eastern cottontail, for instance, is less than one year."
In any case, that is not what the question asks. The question asks for maximum lifespan. The record for the oldest rabbit is 18 years. For crows, the record is 59 years.