Mauritian mission

Wandering through Oxford University's Natural History Museum, the young American student stopped in amazement. There in front of her were the remains of a bird last seen alive in the 17th Century. But what if her research into ancient DNADeoxyribonucleic acid is the material in an organism that carries genetic information. could change that? What if she could help bring the dodo to life again?

Twenty years later, Beth Shapiro's dream - or something close to it - could become reality. Yesterday a picture of a dodo dominated the front page of The Guardian. The accompanying article explained that the company Shapiro works for, Colossal Biosciences, was raising £122m for the project.

The dodo was a strangely shaped, flightless bird which fascinated Europeans after it was sighted by Dutch sailors at the end of the 16th Century. Growing to one metre high and weighing up to 20 kilograms, it lived in the forests of MauritiusAn island and state in the Indian Ocean., fed on fruit and laid its eggs on the ground.

It is thought to have lost the ability to fly because food was easy to come by and it had few predators. But that changed with the arrival of European ships.

Not only did the sailors hunt the dodo, but the cats, dogs and rats they brought with them wrecked the bird's habitatAn animal's habitat is the place that they live in. and ate its eggs. Within a century, it had become extinct.

This added to its fascination. Lewis CarrollAn English author and poet known for his Alice in Wonderland series. used it as a character in Alice in Wonderland, and hundreds of dodo skeletons were kept in museum collections. Using the DNA from these, Beth Shapiro was able to sequence the bird's genomeThe complete set of genes in an organism. . From this she discovered that its nearest living relative was a type of pigeon, the Nicobar.

The plan now is to edit the pigeon's genes to bring them closer to the dodo's. These would be used to create an embryoA fertilised egg that is developing into a foetus. which would be implanted in a Nicobar pigeon. This, is it is hoped, would result in an egg similar to a dodo's.

According to the head of Colossal, Ben Lamm, this version of the bird could be rewilded in Mauritius.

The idea of recreating species from ancient DNA has intrigued many people. In fact, it is the premiseSet-up. The basis from which a story begins. of Jurassic Park, one of the most successful films ever.

Colossal has already been working to recreate the woolly mammoth and the thylacine, a dog-like striped animal commonly known as the TasmanianAn island state of Australia, located to the south of the mainland. tiger.

With mammals, the aim is to implant edited genes into members of a related species which would then give birth. But this could involve many failed pregnancies, which would be stressful for the animals involved. It is hoped that birds laying eggs would not suffer in the same way.  

But Beth Shapiro warns that the result will never be an exact replacement. "What we are trying to do is to isolate the genes that distinguish the dodo," she said.¹ "It would be crazy to think the solution [to the world's biodiversity crisis] was to bring back a proxyA person or country used to represent someone else.."

Another expert, Professor Ewan Birney of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, questions whether the project is a good use of resources. Instead, he says, "We should be saving the species that we have before they go extinct."

Yes: This is a brilliant way to undo some of the damage done by human beings. It would increase biodiversity by filling the world with marvellous creatures that did not deserve to die out.  

No: It would be a waste of money which would be better spent on conservation. We can never bring these creatures back exactly as they were. They might be just as bad at surviving in the modern world. 

Or... Some even say this technology should be focused on our own species rather than animals. We could learn a huge amount by bringing early modern humans back to life, such as those whose remains were found at Omo Kibish in Kenya.