US company hoping to bring back the dodo and the mammoth - but here's why it won't be like Jurassic Park

Dallas-based firm Colossal Biosciences is attempting to “de-extinct” the mammoth, the dodo, and the Tasmanian tiger, using genetic engineering.

Scientists hope to ‘de-extinct’ the mammoth by 2028. File pic: AP

The idea of scientists bringing pre-historic creatures back to life with some clever DNA trickery might sound familiar to fans of the 1993 Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park.

But for Colossal Biosciences – a company that hopes to reintroduce extinct species such as the dodo and the mammoth – it is more than just a film script.

It’s a reality – and one that could be just years away.

“We’ve got all the technology we need,” says Ben Lamm, chief executive of the firm, based in Dallas, Texas.

“It is just a focus of time and funding. But we are 100% confident [we can bring back] the Tasmanian tiger, the dodo, and the mammoth.”

The science behind the project is simple: Work out the genes that make an extinct animal what it is, and then replicate those genes using the DNA of a close existing relative.

“It’s almost reverse Jurassic Park,” says Mr Lamm, speaking to Sky News.

“In the film, they were filling in the holes in the dinosaur DNA with frog DNA.

“We are leveraging artificial intelligence and other tools to identify the core genes that make a mammoth a mammoth and then engineering them into elephant genomes.”

That is the technical part.

But there are some other practical hurdles for Colossal to overcome, namely how, once you have mammoth cells, do you birth a real-life mammoth?

The answer, according to Colossal, is in the womb of an Asian elephant.

But it is a process that could take nearly two years, even after they have worked out how to do it.

“[Each of the] different projects [the mammoth, dodo, and Tasmanian tiger] have different challenges – the mammoth is really around gestation – which is around 22 months,” says Mr Lamm.

“The dodo gestation is pretty great – we are using surrogate chickens. The hardest part is cultivating the primordial germ cells.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/us-company-hoping-to-bring-back-the-dodo-and-the-mammoth-but-heres-why-it-wont-be-like-jurassic-park-13105361