https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=2603%3A8080%3ABDF0%3A8BF0%3AF06A%3A9D33%3A55FB%3ABBE6explain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-05-25T09:09:03ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=3185:_Sauropods&diff=4024253185: Sauropods2025-12-25T13:04:10Z<p>2603:8080:BDF0:8BF0:F06A:9D33:55FB:BBE6: </p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 3185<br />
| date = December 24, 2025<br />
| title = Sauropods<br />
| image = sauropods_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 317x424px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = Vertebrae Georg<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|This page was created by an explainxkcd user who created 3184 pages. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}<br />
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This comic attempts to correct people on the skeletal structure of {{w|sauropod}} dinosaurs, claiming that most individuals actually had short necks and tails, and the "queen" of the colony had an enormous number of vertebrae, possibly resembling a snake with legs. The idea is that paleontologists misconstructed the skeletons, averaging the vertebrae out between all specimens, and not giving most of them to the queen.<br />
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In reality, most of the animal species that have {{w|eusociality|colonies with queens}} are insects, particularly termites, ants, bees, and wasps. No sauropods or other reptiles are known to do so. <br />
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The title-text references {{w|Spiders Georg}}, an internet meme character who eats over 10,000 spiders a day, skewing the average, creating the factoid that "the average person swallows 3 spiders a year."<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[Top panel: A sauropod with a normal long neck and tail, crossed out with a large red X.]<br />
:[Bottom panel: Two sauropods with very short necks and tails, with a green check mark drawn in between and an eel-like supposed "sauropod queen" situated above them, who is predominantly composed of sauropod necks winding off both sides of the panel, with a single head and tip of the tail visible. The sauropod queen and the sauropod on the left look at each other.]<br />
:[Caption below the comic:]<br />
:Thanks to modern paleontological reconstructions, we now know that most sauropods had short necks, and all those extra vertebrae belonged to the sauropod colony's queen.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<noinclude><br />
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[[Category:Biology]]<br />
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]</div>2603:8080:BDF0:8BF0:F06A:9D33:55FB:BBE6