TIL the stable isotopes of barnacles were used to track the temperatures experienced by a piece of floating debris from the MH370 plane crash, which in turn helped reconstruct the path of the debris! This approach works because carbonate-shelled organisms like barnacles (and clams!) have a temperature dependent relationship in the ratios of isotopes oxygen-18 and 16 in their shells!
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023AV000915
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