A daily taxonomy game
CreatureFeature is a free daily puzzle for anyone who likes biology: a Wordle-like taxonomy game where you identify one animal a day by placing it on the tree of life.
How it works
- Look at three photos of today's mystery animal.
- Classify it one rank at a time: kingdom, phylum, class, order and genus. Each list is narrowed by your last answer, just like walking down a real taxonomic key.
- Draw where it lives on a globe. Points come from how well your map overlaps its real range.
- Name it. A common name scores; its scientific (binomial) name typed exactly right scores double.
Then you see the answer, its photo credits and a few fun facts. Everyone gets the same creature, so you can share your score and compare it with friends, like other daily puzzles.
Why taxonomy?
Taxonomy, the science of naming and classifying living things, is how biologists keep track of millions of species. Guessing an animal by its rank (is it an arthropod? an insect or an arachnid? which order?) teaches the tree of life far better than memorising names. Students use CreatureFeature to practise classification, and naturalists use it to test their identification skills on animals they have never seen.
More ways to play
- Birder: a daily bird, starting from its order.
- Regional dailies: an animal a day from each continent.
- The Dinosaur daily and the Prehistoric daily: place extinct creatures on the tree of life and the geologic timeline.
- The name game: just name the animal from its photos, with clues.
- The archive and Practice whenever you want more.
Is it free?
Yes. Every mode is free for everyone, with no sign-up needed. It is purely educational.