Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Bone study transforms understanding of dinosaur growth

The dinosaur group called theropods included the largest land meat-eaters ever on Earth – up to the size of a school bus. But there also were theropods the size of a tabby cat and others of various dimensions, including beaked and toothless fruit eaters and some bizarre long-clawed species that redefine weird.

Scientists had long believed that these dinosaurs followed a uniform pattern in determining the body size of a species, whether gigantic or diminutive, with the rate of growth being the deciding factor – faster meaning bigger and slower meaning smaller. A new study adds to the evidence overturning that idea.

Galaxies spotted by Webb telescope rewrite understanding of early universe

Observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are upending the understanding of the early universe, indicating the presence of large and mature but remarkably compact galaxies teeming with stars far sooner than scientists had considered possible. Astronomers said data obtained by the telescope reveals what appear to be six big galaxies as mature as our Milky Way existing about 540 million to 770 million years after the explosive Big Bang that kicked off the universe 13.8 billion years ago. The universe was roughly 3% of its current age at the time.

Scientists dissect 3,500-year-old bear discovered in Siberian permafrost

A brown bear that lay almost perfectly preserved in the frozen wilds of eastern Siberia for 3,500 years has undergone a necropsy by a team of scientists after it was discovered by reindeer herders on a desolate island in the Arctic. “This find is absolutely unique: the complete carcass of an ancient brown bear,” said Maxim Cheprasov, laboratory chief at the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, eastern Siberia.