TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The US-based biotechnology company Colossal Biosciences has announced plans to bring the extinct giant moa bird, Dinornis robustus, back to life within the next decade. The species, once native to New Zealand’s South Island, went extinct around 600 years ago due to human hunting.
Through genetic engineering, the company aims to resurrect the flightless bird, once the largest of nine moa species, which could grow up to 3.6 meters tall.
"We're bringing back avian dinosaurs," the company said in a post on Instagram.
The company says it will work with scientists and indigenous communities to carry out the project. Colossal previously made headlines for claiming to have resurrected the dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus), but the claim drew criticism after the resulting animal was identified as a genetically modified grey wolf.
The moa project has sparked similar skepticism among experts. "There is currently no genetic engineering pathway that can truly restore extinct species, especially those that have been absent from their ecological and evolutionary contexts for hundreds of years," said Philip Seddon, a zoology professor at the University of Otago, New Zealand, as quoted by Live Science.
"Any end result will not, cannot be, a moa — a unique treasure created through millennia of adaptation and change."
Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s Chief Scientist, told New Scientist that the dire wolf claim involved a "grey wolf with 20 edits," and that it is not possible to recreate an exact replica of an extinct animal.
Despite this, the company maintains that it has resurrected the dire wolf.
To engineer the moa, Colossal plans to analyze DNA from the bones of all nine moa species and compare them with the genomes of their closest living relatives: emus and tinamous. These birds will serve as DNA references for assembling the moa genome.
"It makes sense to use tinamous and emus as templates from which to align DNA of moa," said Trevor Worthy, a vertebrate paleontologist at Flinders University in Australia. "Much work on DNA has shown tinamous are the sister species to moa. Emu are a reasonably close relative as well
Engineered moa cells will be implanted into surrogate mothers. Once hatched, the birds will not be released into the wild or kept in zoos but will live in fenced natural reserves.
Despite their size, moa are not considered dangerous to humans.
"Moas wouldn't see humans as a threat, unless perhaps you tried to hug it, and in scaring it likely you would get kicked and quite likely, badly hurt," Worthy explained.
Colossal also claims the project could aid conservation by advancing artificial egg technology for endangered species.
"There will be undoubted great advances in knowledge along the path towards de-extinction," said Worthy.
"We will get [unprecedented] knowledge of the target animals' DNA and for extinct groups such as the moa this will potentially [be] very interesting regarding their evolution, relationships, etc."
However, some scientists remain cautious. They warn that producing animals that merely resemble extinct species physically could still present ecological and ethical risks.
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