Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Space startups secure record $20.8 billion funding as infrastructure bets surge, report shows

Space ​startups attracted a record $20.8 billion in funding in the third quarter, as investors poured ​money into launch providers, manufacturing and other infrastructure ventures, according to ‌a ​report by global investment firm Seraphim. The figure was nearly triple the $7.4 billion invested in the second quarter and more than double the prior peak. Excluding Blue Origin's $10 billion financing, investment was still at an all-time high of $10.8 billion, underscoring growing demand across the sector.

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.

Explainer-What is Starshield, SpaceX's military version of Starlink?

Ukraine said on Wednesday that Elon Musk's SpaceX had restricted "military-grade" Starlink services, hampering Ukrainian drone strike missions and air defenses. The complaint has drawn renewed attention to the distinction between Starlink, SpaceX's commercial satellite internet service, and Starshield, a military version developed for the Pentagon. While Musk has said the two systems are separate, in many cases they share the same underlying satellite technology.

Chinese ⁠fossil of bird ​with undersized wings scrambles avian evolution

Scientists have discovered ⁠the fossil of a crow-sized bird that lived in China roughly 150 million years ago and possessed undersized wings that may have made it more of a runner than a flier — a discovery that paints a more complicated ⁠picture of early avian evolution. The new Jurassic Period species, Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis, represents one of the earliest-known birds, similar in age to the famous Archaeopteryx from Europe. Yuezhuornis is puzzling for an early bird in that it seems already ​to have diminished the ability to fly in favor of running on the ground, perhaps somewhat like a roadrunner — a fast runner but clumsy flier that rarely takes ⁠to the air.

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.