Ancient 450-Million-Year-Old Creature Revived Through Modern Robotics

Extinct Marine Creature Revived Through Robotic Reconstruction

Fossil records have led to the creation of a soft robotic counterpart of the pleurocystitids, marine entities from nearly 450 million years in the past. These ancient beings are among the earliest known echinoderms to showcase movement, utilizing a muscular stem.

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The span of human history is but a whisper in the timeline of Earth, accounting for only a tiny slice of the planet's rich narrative. Our existence is just the latest chapter in a long and diverse story of life's evolution, one that modern animal species can only partially represent.

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Researchers are venturing into the realm of paleobionics, an innovative discipline that employs Softbotics—a blend of flexible electronics and malleable materials—to reconstruct and analyze the biomechanical aspects that propelled the evolutionary journey of now-extinct life forms.

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"Our goal is to use Softbotics to bring biological systems back to life, in the sense that we can mimic them to understand how they operated," shares Phil LeDuc, professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

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The pleurocystitid, an echinoderm revered for its vital position in the evolution of this phylum, showcased a unique capacity for locomotion with their muscular stem—a trait intriguing to paleontologists despite the lack of contemporary equivalents.

Utilizing fossil-driven insights for their blueprint, the team employed a mix of 3D printing techniques and polymers to replicate the creature's adaptable structural build, crafting a robot that articulates movement akin to the pleurocystitid's original form. The findings suggest that pleurocystitids could likely propel themselves along the seabed using a stem that facilitated forward movement, realizing that broader sweeping actions resulted in more efficient transit.

The nature of the terrain the pleurocystitids once traversed—be it sand or mud—remains a mystery, yet influences the hypothesis of their movement. With the success of this Softbotics project, further explorations into the locomotion of other ancient species, including those who first ventured from sea onto land, are now on the horizon.