SCIENTISTS are planning to bring back to life a giant 12ft bird that went extinct 600 years ago using an artificial egg.
The moa was a flightless bird similar to an emu that weighed around 230kg and lived for millions of years in New Zealand.
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The biotech firm Colossal Biosciences is planning to bring back to life the moa bird using an artificial egg Credit: Unknown
The 12ft bird had gone extinct around 600 years ago from New Zealand Credit: Getty
But after being extinct for almost six centuries, a biotechnology firm says it has a device which can support a moa embryo from early development to hatching.
Having already been able to produce baby chickens, Colossal Biosciences aims to resurrect the moa using the technology.
Ben Lamm, chief executive of Colossal, said: “Restoring species like the South Island giant moa isn’t just about reconstructing ancient genomes and editing [primordial germ cells, which eventually become sperm or eggs] — it requires building an entirely new incubation system where no surrogate exists.
“It’s a major milestone for Colossal and a foundational technology for our de-extinction toolkit.”
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Due to the moa’s colossal size, it only had one predator and was able to fend off other mammals.
It thrived in New Zealand‘s forests until human settlers arrived and became defenceless against hunters.
After being extinct for so long, scientists have now found a way to bring the huge bird back to life.
DNA from relatives, like emus and tinamous, is being used to work out which genetic features produced a moa.
Eventually, emu cells will be edited to create an embryo that can produce an animal that is moa-like.
An issue facing the biotechnology firm however is where it would grow the embryo.
A moa egg can be roughly eight times larger than an emu’s, meaning no living bird would be able to play mother to it.
Colossal says it can create an artificial egg by using a device that can handle larger sizes.
The controlled chamber removes the need for a surrogate mother and can incubate embryos no modern living bird could handle.
Louise Johnson of the University of Reading said: “Artificial, transparent substitutes for eggshells have been used before to grow bird embryos, but they’ve never worked very well. Colossal appears to have developed a better one.”
The device has already been used by the firm to successfully produce baby chickens.
It has also claimed to have resurrected the dire wolf, a species that went extinct around 12,500 years ago.
The project to bring the moa back to life is backed by the film director behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Sir Peter Jackson.
Jackson is an avid collector of moa bones, with scientists already using his personal collection to collect the bird’s genome.
The director has already put £11million into the ambitious plan.
