2026 Prather Lecture Series: Neil H. Shubin

Neil H. Shubin
Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, The University of Chicago 
President-Elect, National Academy of Sciences

The Origin of Walking

Abstract: Walking in tetrapods originally arose in fish living in aquatic ecosystems.  The origin of fish walking is related to the origin of new fluvial environments in the Devonian, modification of primitive skeletal features and neural circuits, and energetic costs of fish swimming at slow speeds.  New fossil discoveries, coupled with an analysis of diverse fish gaits in living and robotic systems, reveals that the most primitive gaits likely involved axial bending with stable appendages.  Locomotion, deploying using mobile limbs for propulsion and control, was a relatively late addition to this primitive program.

The Prather Lecture Series is co-hosted by OEB and MCB.