Reuters Science News Summary

It died out on the mainland around 3,500 years ago. NASA seeks cheaper ideas for Mars sample return mission amid budget crunch NASA is seeking a cheaper, simpler approach to one of its top science priorities in the midst of a budget crunch - retrieving precious soil samples collected on Mars and flying them back to Earth, U.S. space agency officials said on Monday.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Dinosaurs displayed a fast growth rate from the very beginning

One of the traits that helped make the dinosaurs such an evolutionary success story - thriving for 165 million years - was their fast growth rate, from massive meat-eaters like Tyrannosaurus to immense plant-eaters like Argentinosaurus. But when did this characteristic first appear? A new study indicates it was present in the earliest dinosaurs, as revealed by microscopic features in bone fossils from Argentina that showed that they exhibited growth rates on par with those of today's mammals and birds.

Australia's Juukan Gorge yields up rare Tasmanian Devil tooth

Archaeologists surveying the Juukan Gorge rock shelter in Western Australia that was destroyed by Rio Tinto in 2020 have unearthed major finds including the tooth of a Tasmanian Devil that has not been recorded on the mainland in 3,000 years.

The Tasmanian Devil is one of the world's largest meat-eating marsupials that is an apex predator on the country's southern island. It died out on the mainland around 3,500 years ago.

NASA seeks cheaper ideas for Mars sample return mission amid budget crunch

NASA is seeking a cheaper, simpler approach to one of its top science priorities in the midst of a budget crunch - retrieving precious soil samples collected on Mars and flying them back to Earth, U.S. space agency officials said on Monday. A formal request for proposals will go out Tuesday to various NASA centers and laboratories, as well as to space industry companies, asking how to revamp a program mired in technical complexities, spending constraints and ballooning costs, according to NASA executives.

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