Why T. Rex's Arms Were So Short, and Other Surprising Discoveries of the Month

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Whatever we don’t know today, we might know tomorrow.

Whatever we don’t have today, we might have tomorrow.

It’s a hopeful way to think. And it’s why, each month, I publish a newsletter that highlights five exciting discoveries from the month. I call it Look What We Found!

Here was last month's edition. And below are five awesome discoveries that, I hope, will make you rethink how much you know, and how much we all still have to learn, and therefore, how much there is still to accomplish.

Read on…

1. Scallops really like disco lights

Photo credit: Nick David via Getty Images

Want to catch a scallop? Turn on the lights. That’s what a fishery consultancy called Fishtek Marine just accidentally discovered. The company was trying to find a replacement for live bait in traps, and put small LED lights in there instead. They expected to catch lobsters and crabs, but the traps turned out to be full of scallops. “It’s like a scallop disco — illuminate the trap and they come in,” marine scientist Dr. Rob Enever told The Guardian.

This isn’t just weird news. (Actually, you want weird news? Scallops can have up to 200 eyes!!!) It’s actually very good news, because scallops are typically caught by dredging — in short, by scraping along the sea floor. That can seriously damage marine habitat. But now fisheries can just turn on the light and the scallops will come to them.

2. A New Theory About T. Rex’s Short Arms

Photo credit: JoeLena via Getty Images

Why did the mighty T. Rex have such tiny arms? The question keeps some paleontologists up at night, leading to many published theories. In 2017, for example, one hypothesized that small arms were more efficient for slashing prey at short distances. A few years earlier, another researcher said the arms were basically unnecessary because the dino’s head and neck were so powerful. And now we have a new published hypothezided, this one from Kevin Padian, a professor at University of California, Berkeley.

His theory: There’s evidence that T. Rex communities would feed together, which would mean that an arm might get accidentally bitten if it got in a neighbor’s way. So those short arms may have evolved to minimize risk of injury during day-to-day activity. Keep that in mind the next time you're eating family-style. No biting!

3. Mars has two speeds of sound

Photo credit: Derek Berwin via Getty Images

We generally think of the speed of sound as a constant, because that's how it is on Earth. But it actually varies based on atmospheric conditions. And because other planets’ atmospheres are either thicker or thinner than ours, sound can travel faster or slower depending on what planet you’re on.

Microphones on NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover recently measured the speed of sound on the red planet, and found it to be slower than it is on Earth — which makes sense, because Mars’s atmosphere is thin and rich in carbon dioxide. But, surprise: There wasn’t just one speed of sound on Mars! The researchers found that low-frequency sound waves traveled at 240 meters per second (against Earth’s 343) and higher frequencies hit at 250 meters per second.

4. "Ghost fossils" give us hope on climate change

Photo credit: Science Photo Library - STEVE GSCHMEISSNER via Getty Images

Single-celled plankton, called coccolithophores, play a big role in the ocean: They help supply oxygen, sequester carbon in the sea floor, and they’re a key part of marine food webs. These organisms have been around for millions of years, and scientists have long believed that their population has declined during global warming events throughout history. But now that may not be true.

How do we know? Because coccolithophores leave a kind of fossil behind, which can be found in rock and counted today. But a new study, published in the journal Science, identified what they call "ghost fossils" — in short, they're what happened when old fossils were pressed down onto the sea floor over millions of years, and then left impressions even as the fossils themselves disintegrated. These "ghosts" had been previously missed by other researchers, but they tell a new story: Even during periods of warmer climate, coccolithophores thrived.

What does this mean for us more generally, as the climate warms today? It remains to be known. But this just goes to show that our knowledge is evolving — and there really is something to that phrase, “leave no stone unturned.”

5. A rare anti-cancer chemical is growing in Florida

Photo credit: Brett Monroe Garner via Getty Images

In the ‘90s, a cancer-fighting chemical called eleutherobin was discovered in a rare coral species off the coast of Australia. It was described as "extremely potent" and "highly cytotoxic" (aka, toxic to living cells). But there wasn’t much of it, given that it had only been found in that rare coral. So it was of no help fighting human cancer.

Researchers have been looking for more significant eleutherobin sources ever since, and a team from the University of Utah recently discovered it in much higher amounts in soft corals off the coast of Florida. Even better, by identifying the coral's DNA, they're now learning how to create this compound in a lab. That means we could potentially start producing eleutherobin in the amounts necessary to start using it clinically.

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Cover credit: Getty Images / Dougal Waters