beautiful
Explanation
The Joke
A dinosaur, dressed in a robe or toga, dramatically announces to its fellow dinosaurs: "I have to die in just the right way so hairless apes can find my bones and make me a beautiful, beautiful statue!" The other dinosaurs look on sadly and say, "So sad. So very sad."
The comic imagines dinosaurs in the age before their extinction as being aware of the distant future, specifically the fact that millions of years later, humans will dig up their fossilized remains and display them in museums. The dinosaur treats this as its life's purpose -- dying in exactly the right position and conditions to become a well-preserved fossil that will eventually be mounted as a museum exhibit.
The Humor
The joke works on multiple levels. First, there is the absurdity of a dinosaur having foreknowledge of paleontology and treating fossilization as an art form or career goal. Second, the other dinosaurs' reaction -- "So sad. So very sad" -- frames this aspiration the way one might react to a delusional friend who has latched onto an impossible dream. Third, there is a subtle commentary on how we as humans do indeed treat dinosaur skeletons as objects of beauty and wonder, without considering that from the dinosaur's perspective, the whole process requires dying. The dinosaur is essentially planning an elaborate death for the sake of posthumous fame, which is both tragic and ridiculous.