The News
Robot gives evolution theory legs
By The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 03/08/2007 10:57:14 PM MST
Washington - The first animal to crawl onto land from the ocean probably looked a bit like today's salamander, and researchers have wondered how it was able to switch from swimming to walking.
Now, European scientists have built a robot with a primitive electric nervous system that they say mimics that change in motion.
The robot doesn't look much like a salamander - it's nearly a yard long and made of nine bright yellow plastic segments each containing a battery and micro controller - but it does seem to move like one.

The Research
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science.
Robot Suggests How the First Land Animals Got Walking.
From Swimming to Walking with a Salamander Robot Driven by a Spinal Cord Model .