Rethinking the four-wing problem in plesiosaur swimming using bio-inspired decentralized control

A locomotor system that can function across different environmental conditions and produce a range of performances is one of the most critical abilities needed for extant and extinct animals in order to survive and maximise their competitive fitness. Recent engineering-inspired paleontological studies have reconstructed feasible locomotor patterns in extinct animals. However, it is still challenging to describe how extinct animals successfully adjust their locomotor patterns to new situations (e.g., changes in locomotor speed and morphology). In this study, we develop a novel reconstruction method based on a bio-inspired control system. We focus on plesiosaurs, an extinct aquatic reptile group which has two pairs of flipper-shaped limbs, and demonstrate that a highly optimised, flexible locomotor pattern for all four flippers can be reconstructed based on a decentralized control scheme formulated from extant animals' locomotion. The results of our robotic experiments show that a simple, local sensory feedback mechanism allows the plesiosaur-like robot to exploit the fluid flow between the flippers and generate efficient swimming patterns in response to changes in locomotor conditions. Our new method provides further evidence how decentralized control systems can produce a pathway between extinct and extant animals in order to understand the how extinct animals moved and how these movement patterns may have evolved.