Robots could help shed light on how the ancestors of modern land animals transitioned from swimming to walking, about 390 million years ago.
The approach could provide a valuable experimental method to studying how the fins of ancient fish evolved to support weight on land, experts suggest.
Led by the University of Cambridge, the team of roboticists, palaeontologists and biologists is developing palaeo-inspired robots, partly inspired by modern-day walking fish such as mudskippers, and from fossils of extinct fish.
Lead author Dr Michael Ishida from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, said: “Since fossil evidence is limited, we have an incomplete picture of how ancient life made the transition to land.
“Palaeontologists examine ancient fossils for clues about the structure of hip and pelvic joints, but there are limits to what we can learn from fossils alone.
“That’s where robots can come in, helping us fill gaps in the research, particularly when studying major shifts in how vertebrates moved.”
Researchers are creating robots of ancient fish skeletons, complete with mechanical joints that mimic muscles and ligaments.
Once complete, the team will perform experiments on these robots to determine how these ancient creatures might have moved.
Dr Ishida said: “We want to know things like how much energy different walking patterns would have required, or which movements were most efficient.
“This data can help confirm or challenge existing theories about how these early animals evolved.”
The scientists hope the research, which is funded by the Human Frontier Science Program, and published in the journal Science Robotics, will yield results within the next year.