Scientists have created a robotic copy of the ancient lizard

Paleontologists around the world are trying to find out the maximumabout the animal world of the distant past. They are trying to find out how the animals looked, what they ate and how they moved. Scientists from Switzerland and Germany made a big step forward in this matter - they created a robotic skeleton of a lizard that lived more than 300 million years ago. To recreate realistic movements, they used computer simulations and data collected during excavations. The result is very interesting and is shown in the video.

The skeleton is created on the basis of an ancient animal undername Orobates pabsti. It looked like a huge salamander and was located at an important point in the evolutionary tree, between amphibians and mammals. Scientists have chosen it, because it is the only ancient creature whose petrified bones can be associated with fossil footprints.

In the first stage of creating a moving skeletonscientists have studied the movements of modern salamanders, iguanas and caimans. With the help of X-ray images, researchers learned how they stand upright and how their spine and joints bend while moving. Taking into account these data and comparing them with the fossil traces of ancient lizards, they designed a computer model of the creature so that when it moves, its bones and charters do not jump out.

The created model was transferred to the real world.with the help of the robot OroBOT. Researchers compared his method of movement with the gait of modern animals of this type. It turned out that the ancient Orobates pabsti moved roughly like caimans - small relatives of alligators.

Paleontology has already answered many questionsconcerning the times before the appearance of man For example, scientists already know about what would happen to dinosaurs if they had not died out. They also know why life chose to get out of the water on land.

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