Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Isle of Wight ​fossil sheds light on enigmatic meat-eating dinosaurs

The partial ​skull of a tiger-sized predator ‌that prowled what ​is now the Isle of Wight off England's southern coast about 120 million years ago is giving scientists a better understanding of an enigmatic ‌group of meat-eating dinosaurs known for running down prey and ripping them apart with massive hand claws. Researchers said the fossil belongs to a species they have named Invictibellatrix amberina, an early member of the lineage of Cretaceous ‌Period carnivorous dinosaurs called megaraptorans. Invictibellatrix adds to the knowledge of skull anatomy among early megaraptorans and, being ‌the first one known from Europe, helps show how the group spread globally.

NASA's Perseverance rover breaks record for off-planet driving on Mars

While no person has ever set foot on Mars, humankind has managed to conduct extensive explorations of the surface of Earth's planetary ⁠neighbor ​using robotic rovers. One ⁠of them, NASA's six-wheeled Perseverance rover, has now set a record for the longest distance driven by any vehicle on a world ⁠beyond Earth. The US space agency has announced that the car-sized Perseverance has trekked 28.1 miles (45.2 km) since arriving on Mars roughly ​5-1/2 years ago, passing the distance mark previously established by another NASA rover, Opportunity, from 2004 to ⁠2018. Perseverance and Opportunity both also beat the driving distances of any rover that operated on the moon.

Large dogs age more ⁠quickly ​than small dogs at a molecular level

Few animals show the link between size and lifespan as clearly as dogs. Within this one species, large breeds such as Great Danes typically die younger than ⁠small ones such as Chihuahuas. A new study indicates the reason may lie in how DNA changes with age ⁠in dogs. Across mammals, bigger ⁠species like elephants usually live longer lives than smaller ones like mice, but within a species that pattern can reverse. Earlier comparisons across species linked certain biological ‌mechanisms to exceptional longevity, ‌but those are less suited to explaining differences among ​individuals within a species.