The dodo bird, extinct since 1662, is slated for a comeback.

Scientists plot the resurrection of a bird that’s been extinct since the 17th century

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/world/dodo-bring-back-from-extinction-colossal-scn/index.html

Excerpts:


No other animal is as inexorably linked with extinction as the dodo, an odd-looking flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean until the late 17th century.

The arrival of sailors brought with them invasive species like rats and practices like hunting. They doomed the dodo, which showed no fear of humans, to extinction in the space of just a few decades.

Now, a team of scientists wants to bring back the dodo in a bold initiative that will incorporate advances in ancient DNA sequencing, gene editing technology and synthetic biology. They hope the project will open up new techniques for bird conservation.

“We’re clearly in the middle of an extinction crisis. And it’s our responsibility to bring stories and to bring excitement to people in way that motivates them to think about the extinction crisis that’s going on right now,” said Beth Shapiro, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Shapiro is the lead paleogeneticist at Colossal Biosciences, a biotechnology and genetic engineering start-up founded by tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm and Harvard Medical School geneticist George Church, which is working on equally ambitious projects to bring back the woolly mammoth and the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger.

Shapiro said that she had already completed a key first step in the project — fully sequencing the dodo’s genome from ancient DNA — based on genetic material extracted from dodo remains in Denmark.

The next step was to compare the genetic information with the dodo’s closest bird relatives in the pigeon family — the living Nicobar pigeon, and the extinct Rodrigues solitaire, a giant flightless pigeon that once lived on an island close to Mauritius. It’s a process which would allow them to narrow down which mutations in the genome “make a dodo a dodo,” Shapiro said.

Cool.  8)

The science is out there, let's put it to the test.

The dodo bird, extinct since 1662, is slated for a comeback.

Scientists plot the resurrection of a bird that’s been extinct since the 17th century

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/world/dodo-bring-back-from-extinction-colossal-scn/index.html

Excerpts:


No other animal is as inexorably linked with extinction as the dodo, an odd-looking flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean until the late 17th century.

The arrival of sailors brought with them invasive species like rats and practices like hunting. They doomed the dodo, which showed no fear of humans, to extinction in the space of just a few decades.

Now, a team of scientists wants to bring back the dodo in a bold initiative that will incorporate advances in ancient DNA sequencing, gene editing technology and synthetic biology. They hope the project will open up new techniques for bird conservation.

“We’re clearly in the middle of an extinction crisis. And it’s our responsibility to bring stories and to bring excitement to people in way that motivates them to think about the extinction crisis that’s going on right now,” said Beth Shapiro, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Shapiro is the lead paleogeneticist at Colossal Biosciences, a biotechnology and genetic engineering start-up founded by tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm and Harvard Medical School geneticist George Church, which is working on equally ambitious projects to bring back the woolly mammoth and the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger.

Shapiro said that she had already completed a key first step in the project — fully sequencing the dodo’s genome from ancient DNA — based on genetic material extracted from dodo remains in Denmark.

The next step was to compare the genetic information with the dodo’s closest bird relatives in the pigeon family — the living Nicobar pigeon, and the extinct Rodrigues solitaire, a giant flightless pigeon that once lived on an island close to Mauritius. It’s a process which would allow them to narrow down which mutations in the genome “make a dodo a dodo,” Shapiro said.


Can they make good pets?

Can they make good pets?
It tasted of chicken.

It tasted of chicken.

I meant would they be able to live with families?

I meant would they be able to live with families?
Chickens can live with families

        THE DODO

        by: Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)

        The Dodo used to walk around,
        And take the sun and air.
        The sun yet warms his native ground—
        The Dodo is not there!

        The voice which used to squawk and squeak
        Is now forever dumb—
        Yet may you see his bones and beak
        All in the Mu-se-um.

Sir John Tenniel's illustration of the dodo in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:


https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/tenniel/alice/3.2.jpg

With the DNA being so old, there may be some missing sequences. They could fill those in using frog DNA.

With the DNA being so old, there may be some missing sequences. They could fill those in using frog DNA.


According to the article they will use the dodo’s closest living bird relative in the pigeon family, the Nicobar pigeon.

I have seen a dodo, there is one at the Natural History Museum in London, on display there.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/510be2c1e4b0b9ef3923f158/1594471549489-VFVS3IEGVLDU3NW824J7/Dodo-in-Life-July-2020-NHM-Dodo-models-Jan-2020-1095px-68kb-July-2020-Darren-Naish-Tetrapod-Zoology.JPG?format=1000w

And looking online, thee could be one at Harvard.

Maybe we should just leave the dodo be. My concern is that if we resurrect it, it may instinctively seek vengeance on humanity.  :o :o :o

Maybe we should just leave the dodo be. My concern is that if we resurrect it, it may instinctively seek vengeance on humanity.  :o :o :o
I can see the film right now being created as we speak.  ;D

I can see the film right now being created as we speak.  ;D


It would be better than Jurassic Park.  ;D ;D ;D

It would be better than Jurassic Park.  ;D ;D ;D

I have a feeling Disney would create this.

I have a feeling Disney would create this.
Disney has already used a dodo in the 1951 "Alice in Wonderland".

Disney has already used a dodo in the 1951 "Alice in Wonderland".


https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B2%2F2%2F3%2F8%2F8%2F22388844%5D%2Csizedata%5B850x600%5D&call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D