Genetic engineering is not the only way to bring an extinct animal back to life. A very Philip K. Dick-like method being investigated... Robots!

A team of researchers from EPFL and Humboldt University paired up to recreate the gait of an extinct animal based on 300 million year old footprints. It was published in Nature this January

Why??

The researchers wanted to answer the question about how the ancient vertebrate ​​Orobates pabsti moved around. On the evolutionary tree, this extinct vertebrate would be located somewhere between amphibians and reptiles. Learning how Orobates walked is important to our understanding of how animals came onto land from water, as it is the oldest known vertebrae for which scientists have fossilized footprints!

How did they make a fossil into a robot!?

Researchers first recreated computer simulations based on studies of living amphibian and reptile species, and then created a robot based on those simulations. OroBOT is designed to match the shape and movements of the extinct animal by recreating the physics of how it walked and left tracks.

What qualities were they looking for?

The team tested hundreds of different gates based on extant (non-extinct) species like caimans, salamanders, iguanas, and more. The researchers looked at three specific features: how high the animal stood on its legs (more salamander or more iguana?), how its spine bent, and how much its elbow or shoulder joints bent as it walked. They then included metrics like energy requirements and gait stability to be as realistic as possible.

Are there any future applications for a fossil robot except auditioning for the next Jurassic World movie?

The team says that the same procedure could be used to study things like the origins of flight or galloping in other species. I can’t wait for the next horseBot simulator 9000!

Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/12/1111409/paleo-robots-extinct-prehistoric-animals/

Cool video: https://youtu.be/l5KLGkOa3jU

Publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0851-2

As covered on a segment of the Daily Tech News Show on March 25th, 2025. For a more detailed discussion of the topic, listen here: