2630: Shuttle Skeleton

2022-06-08T17:02:53Z

Enoent: /* Explanation */ Add to explanation of Steller's sea cow

{{comic
| number = 2630
| date = June 8, 2022
| title = Shuttle Skeleton
| image = shuttle_skeleton.png
| titletext = It's believed to be related to the Stellar Sea Cow.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a NEBULA DESERT HORSE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In taxonomy, as the understanding of the natural world developed, many misconceptions were overturned such as that dolphins were 'fish'. Or, at least, the scientific terminology was tightened. Because of convergent evolution, the tendency for different families of species to adapt similarly to a given environment, it is often not easy to properly visually distinguish the more distantly related creatures from each other just by observing their exterior (e.g. a body that works well in an aquatic environment).

In lieu of a proper genetic analysis, or even sufficient observation of them in the wild, the main progress in understanding the differences was often in dissecting the corpses of creatures found stranded (or possibly caught in nets) or reconstructing them from skeletal remains. Together with fossil evidence, big insights were developed about their origins (and any differences from others' origins).

In this comic, Randall suggests that the nature of the {{w|Space Shuttle}} was in doubt, or misunderstood, until either an intact 'specimen' (of which there are four) has been dissected, or possibly remains reassembled (from the two that were lost in accidents). The reusable spacecraft system, was used from 1981 to 2011, where after, as mentioned in the caption, it was decommissioned.

With its shape, shown in the small image, and the tail fin, it could look a bit like a fish, maybe even a shark because of the fin. But it is actually not an animal.{{Citation needed}}

The joke is that after the shuttle was taken out of use, its skeleton was analyzed, and as shown in the comic, this is the typical skeleton of a mammal, with details such as the pentadactyl quadripedal bodyform hidden beneath its aerodynamic sweep, as well as the type of bones (i.e. not primarily cartilage). This sort of detail is similar to that possessed by a whale. Of course, the skeleton of a space craft is not made of bones but of metal and plastic {{Citation needed}} and other manufactured materials. But some would call parts of the space craft its ‘skeleton’.

The title-text conflates the now-extinct {{w|Steller's sea cow}}, an aquatic mammal, with the word "stellar", which means being of a star or stars, such as inter-stellar space or stellar masses. Our galaxy is the {{w|Milky Way}}. We associate milk with cows. In this case, the Steller's sea cow can be presumed to be the source of the milk in the Milky Way.

==Transcript==
:[In the upper right part of the panel there is a small drawing of the Space Shuttle as seen from above. Beneath it, and to it's left, is a much larger drawing with the same outline as the Shuttle. But this time the outer layers have been removed to reveal the inside. This has revealed a skeleton taking up the entire space inside. The head is in the front, and legs and tail at the rear, with arms and fingers in the wings. Probably looking somewhat like a bats "hand/wings". The bones are white with the frame of the shuttle gray or black. Some of the lines outlining the design of the shuttle is both on the small and the large drawing, along the wings and rear engines. Both feet and arms have five fingers/toes.There seems to be 24 ribs in the very long rib-cage.]

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:The Space Shuttle was long assumed to be a type of fish or shark, but after it was decommissioned in 2011, anaylysis of its skeleton determined that it was actually a mammal.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Space]]

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2630: Shuttle Skeleton