From 66 million-year-old dinosaur “mummies” to bees that can tell time—and even the hidden psychology in rock-paper-scissors, Joe Johnson breaks down the latest discoveries that are as fascinating as they are weird in this week’s Science Stories segment.
Dinosaur “Mummies” and the First Hooves
Around 66 million years ago, a small herd of Montasaurus ankylosaurus died in a drought—then were ironically buried in a flood. The result? Fossilized “mummies” that preserved detailed impressions of their skin.
Johnson explains, “They died of a drought, but then they were buried in a flood. Now this preserved an impression of the skin as it lay draped on their bones.”
Recent scans of a 20-foot juvenile and a 40-foot adult revealed something astonishing: the rear feet had three large toes, each capped with a hoof, while the front feet had a single central hoof. “This is the first hoof ever known on a reptile,” Johnson notes. “They beat the ungulates—the modern hoofed animals we know—by a couple of million years.”
It’s a classic case of convergent evolution. “Both the horse and these duck-billed dinosaurs were herbivores that had to run to avoid predators,” Johnson says. “It kind of makes sense that they would evolve the same structure.”
Bumblebees That Can Tell Time
In London, scientists trained buff-tailed bumblebees to associate the length of a light flash with a reward. Johnson highlights the finding: “They very quickly learned that the longer flash indicated that it was the good stuff for them. Some of the flashes were as short as a half a second.”
Why would bees need this skill? “Perhaps it evolved for different purposes such as keeping track of movement in space or communication,” Johnson says, showing how even tiny brains can reveal surprising abilities.
The Hidden Strategy of Rock-Paper-Scissors
Even simple games have secrets. In a study of 62 participants playing rock-paper-scissors, researchers found that humans struggle to be truly random. “Winners will tend to repeat their winning choice… Losers tend to change their choice,” Johnson explains. “So if you play paper and the other person plays scissors, next round you should play rock or scissors because they’re probably going to play scissors again.”