Lateral cysticercosis is a marine organism that existed nearly 450 million years ago, much earlier than the first dinosaurs. According to the latest paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States have used computational simulations and soft robots to give new "life" to the lateral cysticercus - using fossil clues to design soft robot replicas of the lateral cysticercus. This helps to understand the movement and evolutionary processes of animals, and further explains the fundamental principles of biology and nature. A machine replica of the lateral cysticercus. (Image source: Carnegie Mellon University School of Engineering) Modern humans have walked on Earth for approximately 300000 years, but in the long river of Earth's history, this seemingly distant period of time is relatively short. In fact, human time on Earth only accounts for 0.007% of Earth's history. In order to broaden their understanding of historical organisms, researchers are introducing a new research field - paleobionics, aimed at utilizing robots with flexible electronic devices and soft materials to understand the biomechanical factors driving evolution by extinct organisms. In addition to its strange appearance, the lateral cysticercus is also famous for being one of the earliest echinoderms to utilize stem like appendages for locomotion. At present, members of the echinoderma class include starfish, sea urchins, sand coins, and sea snake tails. The team used fossils to guide their design and combined 3D printing components and polymers to simulate the flexible columnar structure of mobile attachments to build robots. They have shown that the lateral cysticercosis can move on the seabed with the help of stem like appendages that push forward, and large-scale sweeping movement may be its most effective movement. They also found that increasing the length of stem like appendages can significantly improve the movement speed of animals. Researchers say they hope to use soft robotics technology to "resurrect" more extinct organisms, thereby increasing their understanding of biological evolution. (New News Agency)