Animal Crackers For Zoologists

Animal Crackers for Zoologists

The deep sea king admires his treasure, but to this day knows not who gave it to him.

crab crab crab hand hand hand frighten

I must know their scuttle-y secrets!

so in D&D the gelatinous cube is an explicit in-setting ecological representation of the fact that "dungeons with ten-foot-wide corridors" are a common enough feature that there are creatures adapted or designed specifically for them. but dragons aren't adapted for that design at all, nor are a lot of the other big guys; they either need separate exits or to use magic or shapeshift into a human form to go throguh the tunnels

but this is a problem that has been solved in real-life! the problem of "large animal that needs to get into a fairly consistently-sized tunnel that's significantly smaller" is solved by snakes, and, crucially, by mustelids, animals that are very long relative to their size. so I think D&D needs more of that. there should be giant ten-foot-wide dungeon weasels and stuff.