“There’s a real hazard in saying that if we destroy nature, we can just put it back together again - because we can’t,” said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm, who has no connection to Colossal. Other scientists wonder if it’s even advisable to try, and question whether “de-extinction” diverts attention and money away from efforts to save species still on Earth. The concept is still in an early theoretical stage for dodos.īecause animals are a product of both their genetics and their environment - which has changed dramatically since the 1600s - Shapiro said that “it’s not possible to recreate a 100% identical copy of something that’s gone.”
It may be possible to put the tweaked cells into developing eggs of other birds, such as pigeons or chickens, to create offspring that may in turn naturally produce dodo eggs, said Shapiro. The team may then attempt to edit Nicobar pigeon cells to make them resemble dodo cells. “Preventing species from going extinct in the first place should be our priority, and in most cases, it's a lot cheaper,” said Worm.Her team plans to study DNA differences between the Nicobar pigeon and the dodo to understand “what are the genes that really make a dodo a dodo,” she said. It helps if they can learn from other wild animals of their kind - an advantage that potential dodos and mammoths won't have, said Boris Worm, a biologist at the University of Dalhousie in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who has no connection to Colossal. On a practical level, conservation biologists familiar with captive breeding programs say that it can be tricky for zoo-bred animals to ever adapt to the wild. “And where on Earth would you put a woolly mammoth, other than in a cage?” asked Pimm, who noted that the ecosystems where mammoths lived disappeared long ago.
“There's a real hazard in saying that if we destroy nature, we can just put it back together again - because we can't,” said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm, who has no connection to Colossal. Other scientists wonder if it's even advisable to try, and question whether “de-extinction” diverts attention and money away from efforts to save species still on Earth. The concept is still in an early theoretical stage for dodos.īecause animals are a product of both their genetics and their environment - which has changed dramatically since the 1600s - Shapiro said that “it's not possible to recreate a 100% identical copy of something that's gone.” It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during. Like many other island birds, they lost the power of flight because it was no. The dodo has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th century. Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) Kingdom. The rise of human exploitation and invasive species population is the main reason for the extinction of the Dodo bird in 1681. Her team plans to study DNA differences between the Nicobar pigeon and the dodo to understand “what are the genes that really make a dodo a dodo,” she said. The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct species of flightless bird. The dodo is only one of many lost birds: 161 avian species have been classified as extinct since 1500, according to a 2017 report from BirdLife International. Dodo birds have since then been widely hunted for fresh meat, thus reducing their large number. Shapiro is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports The Associated Press’ Health and Science Department. The dodo's closest living relative is the Nicobar pigeon, said Beth Shapiro, a molecular biologist on Colossal's scientific advisory board, who has been studying the dodo for two decades. Louisville police credit Cardinals players for help in rescue of overturned car near their stadium
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