Dodo: extinct species could come back to life, according to science

In a period dating back from 1662 to 1690, the bird dodo (Raphus cucullatus) disappeared from the planet, leaving behind only stories and speculation about its peculiar appearance.

Without the ability to fly, this bird, similar to a large pigeon, weighed around 23 kilos and lived on the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, where it became extinct approximately 150 years after the arrival of European sailboats.

However, science is now launching a bold proposal to bring this peculiar icon of extinct fauna back to life.

Dallas, Texas-based biotechnology startup Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences has ambitious plans to revive the animal.

Resurrecting the dodo

Representative image of the dodo – Image: Canva Pro/Reproduction

The dodo, whose mysterious arrival on the island of Mauritius remains shrouded in mystery, thrived in this isolated paradise, where the absence of natural predators shaped its anatomy and behavior.

The lack of threats caused these birds to become clumsy and heavy, but at the same time, they developed surprising agility in their natural habitat.

Leon Claessens, professor of Paleontology and Vertebrate Evolution at Maastricht University, highlights that, despite its reputation for clumsiness, the dodo had an anatomy consistent with greater agility than previously imagined. Its unique bone structure allowed it to thrive on the ground as it ran on two short legs in search of food.

The dodo, known for its participation in the classic ‘Alice in Wonderland‘, by Lewis Carroll, had a peculiar diet, with stones as his favorite appetizer.

Colossal clarifies that these stones played a vital role in digestion, as they functioned as gizzard pits or gastroliths.

The Science Behind the Resurrection of the Dodo

Extinct bird around 1662 – 1690 – Image: Canva Pro/Reproduction

The drive to revive the bird is driven by advances in ancient DNA analysis. Beth Shapiro, an expert at the University of California, and her team were able to recover detailed DNA information from the dodo’s remains in a Danish museum.

The process will involve modifying the closest living relative, the Nicobar pigeon, and a machine learning approach to optimize the growth parameters of primordial germ cells (PGCs).

Colossal will also use data from the Rodrigues solitaire, the closest genetic — but extinct — relative of the dodo, and will implement a directed evolution of gene editing tools.

Germline transfer to a host chicken replacement and egg incubation mark the final steps of this process.