Thanks to the robot, scientists learned how to go one of the first inhabitants of land

About 300 million years ago, a strange by today's standards creature, which paleontologists call Orobates pabsti, reached land. Then the animals first began to get out of the water on the ground, studying the vast world that opened to them.

Orobates pabsti was better adapted to land than others, since this creature had four legs, with which it walked very well on a hard surface. How did paleontologists learn about the creature? They found a well-preserved fossil animal remains. Moreover, they were able to detect the prints of his paws.

Previously, the animal was thought to move poorly, leading the lifestyle of modern salamanders. But it turned out that this is not entirely true. Maybe some moments were similar, but Orobates pabsti moved quite well, and as far as can be understood, the animal was very mobile.

Paleontologists found out by “making friends”, in fact, “paleontology, biomechanics, computer modeling and demonstration of animal movement“ live ”. soft ground long dead animals.


If the paw prints had not been preserved, Orobates pabsti would not have been able to restore the method of movement. Only due to the fact that the fossilized skeleton and paw prints have been preserved, have the paleontologists been able to see how this creature moves in essence. Of course, a similar situation would have arisen if only the paw prints were preserved, but not the skeleton.

To combine the skeleton and paw prints, we needed a computer and a digital model, for which we established a number of parameters. “The model, in fact, showed us what efforts the animal made, and made it possible to evaluate the mechanics of movement,” said the head of the study.

Scientists have laid out the results of the work in open access , so that anyone can play with a digital model of a fossil.