The phrase “the way of the dodo” may soon become as obsolete as the species it references.
A biotech company is on a mission to resurrect the dodo along with the wooly mammoth, the latter of which it’s looking to bring back within four years’ time.
Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences announced its intent to pull the mammoth back from extinction around two years ago. According to Popular Mechanic, the company was able to put an estimated return time for the mammoth — 2027 — thanks to an additional $60 million in funding it received last year for the gene-editing work behind the project.
“Colossal’s landmark de-extinct project will be the resurrection of the Woolly Mammoth — or more specifically a cold-resistant elephant with all of the core biological traits of the Woolly Mammoth,” explains the company’s website.
“It will walk like a Woolly Mammoth, look like one, sound like one, but most importantly it will be able to inhabit the same ecosystem previously abandoned by the Mammoth’s extinction.”
The newest member of this de-extinction list along with the woolly mammoth and the Tasmanian wolf — as announced by the company via press release this past Tuesday — is what Colossal CEO and co-founder, Ben Lamm, calls “a symbol of man-made extinction,” the dodo.
And while Colossal’s efforts may reflect some of the darker mores of sci-fi films such as “Jurassic Park,” the company highlights that the technology it uses isn’t simply bringing back species thought to have been mainly the victims of natural selection, but could have other uses such as human health care.
“We have a duty to heal our planet, and to sustain it for future generation,” states Dr. Alta Charo, Warren P. Knowles Professor of Law and Bioethics and Colossal Scientific Advisory Board Member.
“With creativity, caution, and consultation, ethical use of modern genetic technologies can help stabilize ecosystems while bringing the animals and plants who share our planet back from the brink of extinction.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.