During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Volunteer Program created a number of crossword puzzles to help volunteers test their knowledge on the content of our galleries while the Museum was closed. See how much you know about NHMU's galleries and collections on display!
Try to complete the puzzles without too much help from Bone Up. (Bone Up can be accessed through the Resources page.) You can complete the puzzles online here on the Portal, or download a PDF of the puzzle to print out.
Click to go to the puzzles for a specific gallery, or scroll the page and try them all!
Test your knowledge on some of our coolest invertebrates!
Test your knowledge on the critters living in our "Our Backyard" gallery!
Click here for a Word Bank for the Bug Brigade puzzle
Word Bank: Black Headed Centipede, Black Widow, Blonde Tarantula, Blue Death Feigning Beetle, Brown Tarantula, Carolina Wolf Spider, Desert Hairy Scorpion, Desert Millipede, Giant Cave Cockroach, Hissing Cockroach, Jerusalem Cricket, Pinacate Beetle, Pink Toe Tarantula, Praying Mantis, Rose Hair Tarantula, Velvet Ant, Vinegaroon
Click here for a Word Bank for the Utah's Animals puzzle
Word Bank: American Bullfrog, Chorus Frog, Collared Lizard, Colorado River, Gopher Snake, Northern Leopard, Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake, Spadefoot, Tiger Salamander, Western Boreal, Woodhouses
How much do you know about how fossils come to be?
Test your knowledge on the ancient creatures filling our halls!
Click here for a Word Bank for the Fossil Facts puzzle
Word Bank: Amber, Carbon Dating, Coprolite, Fossil, Gastroliths, Index Fossil, La Brea, Mummification, Natural Cast, Natural Mold, Permineralization, Petrified Wood, Pyritization, Sediments, Trace, Uinta
Click here for a Word Bank for the Age of Dinosaurs puzzle
Word Bank: Allosaurus, Chasmosaur, Cladogram, Cleveland Lloyd, Cretaceous, Deinosuchus, Feathers, Gondwana, Kaiparowits, Lythronax, Sauropods, Scleral Ring, Scute, Therapsids, Therizinosaurs, Triassic
Test your knowledge on the non-dinosaur animals filling our halls!
Click here for a Word Bank for the Prehistoric Animals puzzle
Word Bank: Camelops, Dire Wolf, Giant Ground Sloth, Hyracotherium, Mammoth, Mastadon, Muskox, Notharctus, Paleo-Bison, Patriofelis, Presbyornis, Short-Faced Bear, Smilodon, Tsoabichi, Uintatherium
You live right next to it, but how much do you really know about Great Salt Lake?
Test your knowledge on our area's namesake!
Click here for a Word Bank for the Great Salt Lake 1 puzzle
Word Bank: Black-Necked Stilt, Brine Flies, Brine Shrimp, California Gull, Density, Donner Party, Halococcus, Lake Bonneville, Lake Effect, Magnesium, Oolitic Sand, Orb Weaver, Saltair, Shadscale, Whales, White American Pelican
Click here for a Word Bank for the Great Salt Lake 2 puzzle
Word Bank: Algae, Antelope Island, Causeway, Chloride, Decay, Great Basin, Inlets, John Fremont, Migratory Waterfowl, Salinity, Salt Flats, Surfactants, Terminal, Thirty-three, Two Million
How much do you know about the ancient peoples of Utah?
Virtual version coming soon!
Click here for a Word Bank for the First Peoples puzzle
Word Bank: Ancestral Puebloan, Atlatl, Baker Village, Basketry, Chronometrical Dating, Excavation, Fremont, Late Archaic, Median Village, Paleo Archaic, Petroglyphs, Pottery, Promontory Cave, Provenance, Stone Tools, Textiles
Love Utah's Gems & Minerals? Now's your chance to shine ;)
Virtual version coming soon!
Click here for a Word Bank for the Gems & Minerals puzzle
Word Bank: Aurichalcite, Copper, Gypsum, Halite, Honeycomb, Malachite, Molybdenite, Opal, Philipsburgite, Pyrite, Quartz, Sulphur, Topaz, Turquoise
Test your knowledge on the local flora while you enjoy the emergence of springtime plants!
Test your knowledge on the rocks that make up our landscape!
Click here for a Word Bank for the Flora of the Great Basin puzzle
Word Bank: Arrowleaf Balsamroot, Bristlecone Pine, Brittle Fern, Cheatgrass, Dwarf Penstemon, Elkweed, Gambel Oak, Heartleaf Arnica, Indian Ricegrass, Moss Campion, Mountain Mahogany, Pickleweed, Quaking Aspen, Rabbitbrush, Sagebrush, Saltgrass, Sego Lily, Western Sweet Cicely, Wolfberry
Click here for a Word Bank for Geology Facts puzzle
Word Bank: Arches, Basin and Range, Colorado Plateau, Continental Divide, Ephemeral Pools, Geosyncline, Homestead Cave, Laramide Orogeny, Mount Elbert, Oxbow Lake, Playas, Rock Cycle, Sedimentary, Trilobites
Test your knowledge on the building blocks of life!
How much do you know about the living things in Utah's deserts and mountains?
Click here for a Word Bank for the Genes and Cells puzzle
Word Bank: Alleles, Cancer, Cells, Cytoplasm, Deoxyribonucleic Acid, Gene, Keratin, Lysosomes, Meiosis, Mitochondria, Mitosis, Nucleus, Photosynthesis, Prokaryotes, Proteins, Ribosomes
Click here for a Word Bank for the Organisms and Ecosystems puzzle
Word Bank: Alpine Tundra, Biogeography, Biotic Potential, Cold Deserts, Ecology, Ecosystems, Hot Deserts, Montane Forests, Organism, Population, Speciation, Taxonomy, Viruses
How well do you know our closest ancestors?
Click here for a Word Bank for the Hominin Wall puzzle
Word Bank: Afarensis, Africanus, Anamensis, Ergaster, Erectus, Floresiensis, Habilis, Heidelbergensis, Kadabba, Kenyanthropus platyops, Naledi, Neanderthalensis, Orrorin, Paranthropus, Ramidus, Rudolfensis, Sahelanthropus, Sediba
Test your knowledge on the skies above us!
Click here for a Word Bank for the Sky Gallery puzzle
Word Bank: Aeronomy, Aerosols, Climate Change, Comets, Constellations, Inversion, Lake Effect Snow, Lightning, Meteoroids, Meteorology, Photosphere, Prism, Sunspot Cycle, The Moon, Troposphere, Weather Station, Wind
How much do you know about Utah's contemporary American Indian Nations?
Click here for a Word Bank for the Native Voices puzzle
Word Bank: Diné Bikéyah, Goshute, Hogan, Moccasin, Navajo, Newe, Paiute, Puha, Sacagawea, Shoshone, Skull Valley, The Bear Dance, The Ghost Dance, Ute, Wickiup, Winnemucca
How much do you know about the past climates of the southern-most continent?
Test your knowledge on the nature that's right in our own backyards!
Click here for a Word Bank for the Antarctic Dinosaurs puzzle
Word Bank: Advanced Satellites, Air Bubbles, Circumpolar Current, Fossil Forests, Fossil Microorganisms, Glossopteris Indica, Gondwana, Ice Sheets, Katabatic Winds, Lichens, Pallasite Meteorites, Peat, Permian Extinction, Polar Lights, Pollen, Transantarctic Mountains
Click here for a Word Bank for the Nature All Around Us puzzle
Word Bank: Citizen Science, Fox Squirrels, iNaturalist, Myrtle Spurge, Novel Ecosystems, Outdoor Bill of Rights, Pollinators, Riparian Zone, Scat, Synanthropes, Urban Forest, Watershed, Western Firefly Project, Wild Bees, Wildland Urban Interface