![]() Why would you even bother trying to save something long gone, when there’s so many things that are desperate right now?” added Julian Hume, an avian paleontologist at London’s Natural History Museum. “There’s so many things that desperately need our help. I feel that we should be concentrating on saving what biodiversity we still have (which we are not doing a great job of) rather than investing in projects to bring back species that we have already failed.” Jason Gilchrist, an ecologist at Edinburgh Napier University, said, “Resurrection requires huge amounts of money and investment in expertise and technology, with a relatively low probability of success. Some scientists argue that the hundreds-of-million-dollars fund raised by Colossal shouldn’t be spent on de-extinction attempts and instead should go to other projects aiming to support remaining biodiversity conservation.Ī recreation of the Dodo by Fiver, der Hellseher Wikimedia Commons There’s a lot of benefits from a conservation perspective, in terms of what we can learn from rewilding.”Ĭoncerns and skepticism from other scientists and expertsĪmbitious and controversial projects such as this one undoubtedly become a lightning rod for criticism. “I think this is an opportunity where, given the man-made nature of the extinction of the dodo, man could not only bring the dodo back, but also fix what was done to parts of the ecosystem to reintroduce them. And b) if there was no environment viable enough for the new dodo, it would potentially cause an ethical outcry.Īccording to Shapiro, any introduced species (which are sometimes invasive) in Mauritius will have to be removed before dodos can survive there again.Ĭolossal founder Ben Lamm has remained optimistic about the whole project. It’ll be a completely new type of bird (in its now completely different habitat), only one of its kind-it won’t know how to survive in the wild. The challenges are a) should the project succeed the dodo might not behave like one. It’s hard,” said Mike McGrew, an avian gene editing specialist at the University of Edinburgh. I’ve been trying for about ten years to culture germ cells from other bird species. “That’s the big, hard part jumping from chicken species, which many labs in the world do, to other bird species. But chickens, pigeons, and an extinct species is a whole another story. ![]() This gene editing has happened and worked to breed chickens. Next, they aim to remove germ cells from the pigeon’s egg and edit the genes to make them more dodo-like, then implant the cells back into the egg. A team at the University of California sequenced its genome in 2022, and now the biotechnology company wants to revive dodo by editing the genomes of its living relatives.Īfter getting the dodo’s sequenced genome, the company’s scientists plan to edit genes from the Nicobar pigeon, the dodo’s closest living relative. It’s the poster child, in a sad way, for how human habitat alteration can drive species to extinction,” Colossal’s lead paleogeneticist Beth Shapiro said.Īs we know, the bird used to roam free in island of Mauritius until humans in the 17th century introduced new species in the island and hunted them to death. “I’ve always been fascinated with the dodo. Recently, dodo came to the list of extinct species they want to resurrect. The biotechnology company that wants to do this, Colossal Biosciences, wanted to genetically recreate woolly mammoth and, well, thylacine. In that article, it was the case of Tasmanian tiger and marsupial rat. A while ago, I wrote an article about the possibility of bringing back extinct animals to life.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |