Pleo, the adorable robotic dinosaur from Ugobe and the mind of Caleb Chung, is struggling to avoid Jurassic-like extinction.

As we noted late last year, Ugobe's CEO Bob Christopher stepped down and the company moved its operation to Idaho (Pleo was on my "Maybe Buy" list for these and other reasons). Now Wired's Gadget Lab reports that the company's situation may have gone from bad to worse. Liz Gasper, who took over for Christopher and spent most of her time cutting costs, left the company in January.

Meanwhile, fund-raising efforts stalled and the entire Ugobe board resigned. Co-founder Caleb Chung is now back in charge, but he didn't speak to Wired. Company President and COO Dough Swanson painted a rosy picture for Gadget Lab, telling the blog that, while the company has just 20 employees left, it still plans on delivering a Pleo update sometime in 2009. It's unclear if that's another one of the company's semi-frequent Pleo software updates or new hardware.

Pleo's fall from grace is disheartening, but not surprising. The consumer robotics industry is littered with the corpses of failed enterprises, including the once beloved Sony AIBO and the Tiger iCybie. Plus tough economic times usually spell disaster for industries like robotics, which rely heavily on research and development funding.

Though the company has sold just 100,000 units, Gadget Lab notes Pleo's strong following and includes a quote from Gearlog friend and Robots Rule founder Robert Oschler who says, "Pleo is the first robot that, if you allowed yourself to suspend disbelief, you could fool yourself into thinking it was a baby pet." This echoes my own thoughts when I first reviewed Pleo in December 2007, "[Ugobe's] pricey robotic dinosaur, Pleo, will charm and wheedle its way into your heart like a real live pet, and it could help pave the way for a robot renaissance." Sadly, that last part will likely prove to be a pipe dream.