More about Dry Bones...
Games: Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Paper Mario, etc.

Dry Bones is a skeletal Koopa first seen in Mario 3.  It can be subdued with a stomp but is difficult to defeat because, unless attacked in certain ways, it will reform shortly and continue shuffling about, making it a more dangerous foe in tight spaces.  In Mario World it acquired the ability to throw bones as projectiles, though it also could be defeated for good by a cape spin whereas in Mario 3 it could be killed only with rare power-ups such as a Star or sledgehammer.

Dry Bones could have perfectly well been a one and done enemy, but because it has continued to appear so often, has unique characteristics, and tends to appear in memorable levels such as castles, it is one of the most iconic enemies of the series today.  It has appeared in every Mario RPG and, after missing appearances in Mario 64 and Sunshine, has returned in the Galaxies and New Super Mario Bros. so it is appearing very frequently now in just about every game starring Mario, though it has to crack into Yoshi's.  Dry Bones's cousins, Red Bones and Dark Bones, served as minibosses in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and it was probably the inspiration for Bowser Bones in New Super Mario Bros.  Dry Bones has been playable in Mario Baseball and recent Mario Kart and Mario Party titles.  Not bad for a dead guy!

One of the biggest questions about Dry Bones - other than, like, why it's still able to walk around - is whether or not it's weak to fire.  In the platformers it's immune to fireballs, but in some of the RPGs, it's not only vulnerable to fire, but weak to it.  In Paper Mario the only way to defeat Dry Bones permanently was to torch it with something like a Fire Flower.  I think Nintendo was torn between the fact that bones, as an earthly substance, ought to be naturally fire resistant, against the idea that fire represents life and ought to drive back death.

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