Among all the animals and birds that have gone extinct, the dodo remains unforgettable, not due to some special characteristic, but because, before its human-driven extinction, many thought that nature was inexhaustible and none of god's creations would ever disappear.
It proved that human activity had the capacity to wipe out an entire species. More than 300 years after the bird disappeared from the face of Earth, an American biotech company claims it is making progress in its goal of resurrecting the famous flightless bird, as per a Reuters report.Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences said on Wednesday that it has used a newly developed AI platform to identify genetic changes that may be responsible for the dodo's distinctive craniofacial traits as its scientists pursue gene-editing targets to bring back the lost species.
Colossal is planning to perform gene-editing to bring the dodo traits into the cells of one of its closest living relatives, the Nicobar pigeon.
Native to some Southeast Asian islands, the Nicobar pigeon is known for its shimmering green and copper feathers but unlike the dodo, it can fly.Ancient DNA is always broken into small pieces, so no ancient genome is perfectly complete, including that of the dodo. It made use of a new AI platform called GenoMorph.
"The challenge was that scientists only have one complete dodo genome, making it difficult to distinguish the genetic differences that made the dodo unique from ordinary genetic variation. GenoMorph effectively acts as a 'treasure map' for the dodo genome, narrowing hundreds of thousands of possible genetic changes into the targets most likely to explain its iconic beak and facial structure," Lamm said.Beth Shapiro, Colossal's chief science officer, said GenoMorph finds likely gene-editing targets for species with very little surviving DNA.
Normally scientists compare many genomes from one species to find the genes behind a trait, but this is not possible with the dodo, Shapiro said.The company said it is in its final stages of analysis of the dodo genome, now filled to 95%. It also said it has made an advance that should shorten the time needed to test whether a genetic edit produces the desired trait. However, it did not announce any timeframe for hatching a dodo.Colossal says it is dedicated towards "de-extinction", which involves resurrecting vanished species. In 2025, it said it has genetically engineered the dire wolf by editing the genes of the grey wolf, the extinct Ice Age predator's closest living relative, to add dire wolf traits.Including the dodo and dire wolf, Colossal has four other species on its de-extinction list: the woolly mammoth; the thylacine, also called the Tasmanian tiger; the bluebuck antelope; and the moa, a large flightless bird."The dodo is the world's best-known symbol of extinction caused by people. It disappeared within decades of humans arriving on Mauritius, largely because of the introduction of invasive species like rats and other animals they brought. Bringing it back shows extinction doesn't have to be permanent," Ben Lamm, Colossal's CEO and co-founder, told Reuters. "The big hurdles ahead are proving which genetic changes really matter, making many of those edits in a bird and passing them to the next generation, and preparing a safe home for dodos on Mauritius," Lamm said.The dodo was a flightless, ground-nesting bird about 3 feet tall and weighing 50 pounds. Having never encountered humans, dodos were fearless of the people who reached Mauritius in the 16th century. Due to consistent pressure from invasive species and human hunting, the last living dodo was seen in 1662. It has remained alive in popular culture, including in Lewis Carroll's book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
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