Animal with greatest qty. neck bones

My roommate and I were goofing off with an online trivia quiz the other night. One of the questions was “Which animal has the greatest number of neck bones?” The chocies were a giraffe, a man, a duck, an ant, or a sparrow, in that order

The obvious impulse choice is giraffe, so I said no, its too easy. I suggested the ant, but this seemed totally implausable to my roommate. He thinks ants have exoskeletons; do they? I didn’t think so, but I couldn’t prove it to him.

Since he would give me total crap for a week and promised I would “never live it down,” I refused to cast my final vote for “ant” and instead suggested “sparrow.” I figured he’s right, an ant is awfully tiny. But then I got thinking, hmm, a sparrow and a duck are both birds; the duck is bigger, maybe its a duck.

Don’t ask why I refused to even consider “man” as an option. I think it was a trick question, but my roommate is adamant that its giraffe (I know I learned they had relatively boneless necks for their size somewhere). The quiz timed out before we could answer, thus voiding our entry.

Uncle Cecil deferred me to the message board, so I turn to you folks: which animal has the greatest number of neck bones?

Without answering the question, I can guarantee that your roommate is wrong. A giraffe has only 7 vertebrae in their neck, the same as humans.

My guess would be ducks, as they have incredibly flexible necks.

Most mammals have 7 cervical (neck) vertebrae; giraffes (and humans) are included among these.

Birds have between 13 and 25 cervical vertebrae. Ducks, I believe, have about 18, while sparrows have 14.

Ants, lacking bones entirely, have none.

The winner, therefore, would be the duck.