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Robots are bringing new life to extinct species. The field of paleo-inspired robotics is opening up a new way to turn back time and studying prehistoric animals.
The field of paleo-inspired robotics is opening up a new way to turn back time and studying prehistoric animals.
The four-limbed animal, which prowled Earth 280 million years ago, is largely a mystery — it dates to a time before mammals and reptiles developed and was in fact related to the last common ancestor of the two groups. After measuring the robot’s energy consumption, its stability in motion, and the similarity of its tracks to fossilized footprints, the researchers concluded that Orobates probably sashayed like a modern caiman, the significantly punier cousin of the crocodile. The researchers gradually tweak the robot’s features, on the hunt for the minimum physiology an ancient fish would need in order to walk on land for the first time.MICHAEL ISHIDA, FIDJI BERIO, VALENTINA DI SANTO, NEIL H. SHUBIN AND FUMIYA IIDA
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