The dodo, a strange-looking flightless bird that existed on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean until the late 17th century, is the animal most closely associated with extinction.
Sailors introduced invasive animals like rats and behaviors like hunting when they arrived. They condemned the dodo, which had no fear of people, to go extinct in a matter of decades.
In an ambitious endeavor that would make use of developments in ancient DNA sequencing, gene editing technologies, and synthetic biology, a group of scientists now aims to bring the dodo bird back. They anticipate that the initiative will lead to innovative approaches to bird conservation.
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“There is no doubt that we are experiencing an extinction crisis. And it’s our duty to tell people tales and create excitement in a way that inspires them to consider the current extinction issue, according to Beth Shapiro, an ecology and evolutionary biology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Lead paleogeneticist Shapiro is employed by Colossal Biosciences, a biotechnology and genetic engineering start-up company that was founded by tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm and geneticist George Church of Harvard Medical School. Colossal Biosciences is engaged in two equally ambitious projects: reviving the woolly mammoth and the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger.
Shapiro said that using genetic material taken from dodo bones in Denmark, she had already finished a crucial first stage of the endeavor by thoroughly sequencing the dodo’s genome from ancient DNA.
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The genetic material was then compared with the Rodrigues solitaire, an enormous flightless pigeon that previously resided on an island near to Mauritius, and the extant Nicobar pigeon, two of the dodo’s closest avian cousins. They would be able to focus their search by determining which genetic changes “make a dodo a dodo,” according to Shapiro.
An exhibit of a dodo skeleton can be found in Mauritius.
An exhibit of a dodo skeleton can be found in Mauritius.
Indra Jayasena
Obstacles to bringing the dodo back to life
Programming cells from a living dodo relative with the lost bird’s DNA will be a much more difficult task once the animal has been brought back to life. Shapiro said she plans to modify a method that has already been used to produce a chicken fathered by a duck using primordial germ cells, the embryonic forerunners of sperm and eggs.
She stated that the method entails taking primordial gems cells from an egg, growing them in a lab, and then altering the cells with the desired genetic features before putting them back into an egg at the same embryonic stage.
The scientists won’t be creating a carbon copy of the dodo that existed four centuries ago, but rather a modified, hybrid form, even if they are successful in this risky quest.
The development of these synthetic biology technologies, according to Shapiro, will have broader consequences for the conservation of birds. The methods might enable researchers to transfer particular genetic features between bird species in order to safeguard them as their habitats get smaller and the environment gets warmer.
It would be fantastic to get this technology, which is effective in chickens, to function in a wide variety of birds throughout the bird tree of life, according to Shapiro, because it would have a significant positive influence on avian conservation.
“Maybe we can use these tools to transfer that even between closely related species,” she continued. “If we find that there is something that provides immunity against a disease that’s hurting a population, and you know what the genetic changes underlying that immunity or that ability to fight off that disease is.
The study was called a “moon launch for synthetic biology” by Mike McGrew, a senior lecturer and personal chair in avian reproductive technologies at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh. His approach involves reviving uncommon chicken breeds from frozen primordial germ cells using commercial egg-laying chickens as substitutes.
The concept is that you must now be able to use pigeon species. And that’s the huge, difficult part—jumping from chicken species, which many labs across the world do, to other bird species,” said McGrew, a member of Colossal’s scientific advisory board who is not directly involved in the dodo research.
“I’ve been attempting to cultivate germ cells from other bird species for nearly ten years. It’s difficult, he remarked.
The scientific initiatives to bring back the dodo will be led by Beth Shapiro of Colossal Biosciences, which was founded by tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm on the right.
The scientific initiatives to bring back the dodo will be led by Beth Shapiro of Colossal Biosciences, which was founded by tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm on the right.
Courtesy Giant Biosciences
Spending on extinction prevention
Investors are interested about de-extinction projects and the potential technical advances they could lead to, regardless of whether Colossal and its team of scientists are ultimately successful in their mission to bring the dodo and other extinct animals back to life. The company began in 2021, and on Tuesday, Colossal disclosed that it has raised a further $150 million, bringing the total amount of investment raised to date to $225 million.
However, detractors claim that the enormous funds involved would be better used to save the about 400 bird species as well as several other creatures and plants that are categorized as endangered.
There are so many things that urgently require our assistance. Also, money. When there are so many things in need right now, why even strive to save something that has long since passed away? said Julian Hume, an expert on the dodo at the Natural History Museum in London.
The dodo is frequently portrayed as chubby and awkward. According to Hume, this Mughal artist Ustad Mansur illustration from circa 1625 is regarded as one of the most accurate.
The dodo is frequently portrayed as chubby and awkward. According to Hume, this Mughal artist Ustad Mansur illustration from circa 1625 is regarded as one of the most accurate.
Lies about Ustad Mansur Dodo
Hume claimed that little is known about the dodo and that many misconceptions surround the animal. Even the name of the animal is unknown, though he believes it derives from the sound of the alleged call, a low-pitched pigeon-like coo.
When sea levels were low, the progenitors of the dodo were in Southeast Asia and island-hopped their way to Mauritius, where they became isolated and without predators when sea levels rose.
Since its discovery, the dodo has inspired fascination. It makes an appearance as a figure in John Tenniel’s illustrations of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
Since its discovery, the dodo has inspired fascination. It makes an appearance as a figure in John Tenniel’s illustrations of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
Getty Images/The Print Collector
“Flight is incredibly expensive (in terms of energy). If you don’t need it, why maintain it? The food and fruit are all on the ground, and after you lose your ability to fly, you can grow enormous. According to Hume, the dodo “simply got bigger and bigger and bigger.
The dodo, which was based on a skeleton from the Durban Natural Science Museum in South Africa, was once about 70 centimeters (2.3 feet) tall and weighed between 15 and 18 kilos, according to a computerized 3D model of the bird Hume (33 to 39 pounds).
The dodo was also probably more agile than the pictures that show it as a bulky, lumbering bird may imply, according to the model.
The dodo is to blame for popularizing the concept of extinction, a tragic accomplishment that lives on in the expression “dead as a dodo.”
Before the first dinosaur fossils became well-known in the 1600s, “the concept of extinction didn’t exist. Everything was a product of God, and it has always been this way. Everyone just did not have the concept of eradication in their language, according to Hume.
Even at the time of discovery, the bird was unusual, he continued. “They vanished quickly. There were none remaining when people sought to learn more about them.