Editing 2760: Paleontology Museum

{{comic
| number    = 2760
| date      = April 7, 2023
| title     = Paleontology Museum
| image     = paleontology_museum_2x.png
| imagesize = 485x155px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Nowadays the only ones left that do anything are turtles.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, Cueball and Megan are at a {{w|paleontology}} museum and are looking at the {{w|Fossil#Permineralization|fossilized}} skeleton of a ''{{w|Stegosaurus}}''.
Dinosaurs encompassed a wide variety of species that would be amazing to see alive today, including T. rexes, Stegosaurus, Velociraptor, etc.{{fact}}  Cueball is remarking that the "bones" they are looking at [https://www.amnh.org/dinosaurs/dinosaur-bones are now actually rock], and that 'rocks' then were way cooler (e.g. inside a dinosaur) than modern rocks. He may be under the impression that dinosaurs looked like their skeletons and therefore, were "rocks" that could walk, or perhaps just that their skeletons were actually made of rock, making those 'rocks' more cool than our modern inanimate ones.

The title text suggests that {{w|turtles}} are a form of animate rock. This could be interpreted in two ways. In the first interpretation, you could say that their hard shells make them seem like rocks that are able to move on their own. This gives the latest approximation to modern "rocks" that do more or look cooler than just plain old rocks. In the second interpretation, the text could be generalizing the idea of bone-based armor as "rocks" to other animals. This would include other armored animals like armadillos and pangolins. Extending it beyond bone-based to any hard outer construction could encompass many other life forms - for example, shellfish and corals.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan and standing beside each other in what is presumably a museum, and are viewing a stegosaurus skeleton. The skeleton stands on a pedestal and there is a placard on a stand in front of it.  The rib cage and head of the skeleton are visible to us; the rear of the skeleton is outside the frame of the panel.]

:[Panel of just Cueball and Megan.]
:Cueball: Wow.

:[Cueball and Megan standing.]
:Cueball: Rocks used to be '''''so cool'''''.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Geology]]