As a follow-up to a class discussion of the nature and validity of historical and experimental science, I came into class yesterday and posed three questions to my students: Why were T. rex’s arms so short? Does repeated head trauma on the football field cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)?, and Why do our fingers wrinkle when soaked in water? We discussed possible hypotheses and ways to test them as an exercise in getting a grasp on how do we establish what we can know and how we know when we know it.
Interesting post. My guess is that the arms first became useless for locomotion, atrophied, and later took on a different function (which would explain the strong muscles you mentioned). Similar to how penguin flippers previously served a flight function which now serve a swimming function. Just a guess
It’s a nice logical guess, I would not go very far from what you are saying either. Infact many scientists think that the same happened to the homo species which started walking on two legs, rather than four.