The dodo lived peacefully and happily for millions of years in Maurice Island. Los Dutchmen lo they extinguished in just 60 years. 400 years later, the startup Colossal if it has a de-extinguish it. But it is a daunting task.
The dodo was a huge bird, three feet tall, with a large stout beak that it used to crack coconuts. Its wings were stunted, and it could not fly. was endemic to Maurice Island. It was discovered by Dutch sailors in 1598. They immediately began to hunt them down Already eat their eggswhich they put on the ground.
These sailors brought in their ships dogs, pigsand especially wheelwho ate their eggs. In 1662, the dodo became extinct.. He had lived millions of years on the island, but the humans wiped him out in 60 years.
Only remains of the dodo, only loose bones of different specimens. Luckily there is a skeleton with high-quality DNA, belonging to the Museum of Natural History in the Netherlands. You can see it here:
Thanks to the DNA of these remains, scientists from the University of California have managed to complete its genome.
And now, the Colossal company, the same one that is trying to make the mammoth extinct, is going to dedicate a budget of 150 million dollars a de-extinguish al dodo.
There is always a ethical dilemma about whether we have the right to “resurrect” extinct species. But one thing are the species that become extinct on their own, and another that They have been hunted to extinction by humans. There are countless cases. from own dodothe mammoth, the recent Northern white rhinoceros, or the Tasmanian tiger.
In these cases, perhaps it would be an obligation de-extinguish them, if science allows it. But dodo es much more complicated than the aforementioned mammals. The problem with birds is that they still We do not know 100% its reproductive mechanism.
Still, the Jurassic Par scientists… sorry Colossalthey are already preparing a possible method to achieve this, with the help of the closest living genetic relative to the dodo: the nicobar pigeon. It is also endemic to Mauritius, and is in danger of extinction:
The idea is to use primordial germ cells (PGCs) coming from the nicobar pigeonwhich they will inject with the dodo genomeand insert it into the egg of a chicken.
It is a technique that is difficult to succeed, but if they succeed, it could not only de-extinguish the dodo: also save birds with very few specimens from extinction.
We will closely follow this important attempt to resurrect the dodo. Perhaps sooner than we think, we will be able to see him again running through the woods of Maurice Island.
