Researchers Hope to Recreate Entire Bodies of Ancient Organisms Using a New Field: Paleo-inspired Robotics
“We have animal species that have undergone millions of years of evolution, yet with just a few lines of code or a new 3D-printed limb, we can simulate that million years of evolution in a short time,” said Dr. Michael Ishida, a researcher at the University of Cambridge (UK) and co-author of the study, as reported by the Guardian.
Paleo-inspired robotics helps explore how vertebrates transitioned from water to land – (Photo: University of Cambridge)
Dr. Ishida is part of a research team investigating the evolutionary adaptations that allow certain fish species, such as mudskippers, to move on land. According to him, creating a robot based on these fish can help us understand the evolutionary pressures or mechanisms that forced fish to develop anatomical structures that would be beneficial on land.
The research team noted that engineers have long been able to create robots that mimic living organisms, as well as design robots to explore specific features of extinct species, including the plesiosaurs.
They hope to achieve the recreation of entire bodies of ancient animals in the near future. “Analyzing just one limb is not enough to truly understand how a four-legged animal moves,” Dr. Ishida stated.
Extinct reptiles like plesiosaurs could be recreated into robots – (Photo: Alamy).
According to Dr. Ishida, such robots have an advantage over computer simulations because they can be tested in real-world environments.
The research team stated that the field of paleo-inspired robotics could help answer questions about how vertebrates transitioned from living in water to land, the evolution of flying abilities, and how some species shifted from four-legged to two-legged locomotion. Dr. Ishida remarked that we cannot easily understand these significant changes just by observing fossils.
Professor Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) who was not involved in the research, believes the field of paleo-inspired robotics holds great potential. “It would be fascinating to create a robot to understand how the massive dinosaurs walked and moved,” Professor Brusatte said.
The study was published in the journal Science Robotics.
