1 hour ago
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/19/nx-s1-580...s-dodo-moa
EXCERPTS: Trevor Snyder pulls open an incubator and gently lifts out a device that looks like a high-tech coffee pod. It's black, with a honeycomb bottom. A clear flat top reveals what's inside. "This is a chicken embryo," says Snyder, a bioengineer at Colossal Biosciences in Dallas...
[...] Snyder and his colleagues developed this 3D-printed plastic egg to advance one of Colossal's big goals: resurrecting the dodo and another extinct flightless bird called the giant moa, which looked like a giant ostrich when it roamed New Zealand hundreds of years ago.
[...] The moa's eggs were about the size of a football, which is far larger than the eggs of the moa's closest living relatives, such as the emu.
"There's no bird on Earth today that could grow a moa embryo inside of one of their eggs," Snyder tells NPR during a recent tour of the company's lab. "So we have to come up with artificial eggs to be able to support those embryos. But to understand all the things that the egg needs to do, we're starting with chicken eggs."
On Tuesday, Colossal announced that it had hatched healthy chicken chicks that were incubated in the company's artificial eggs, providing a proof of concept that they work.
[...] The company's plan is to try to recreate dodos and moas from embryos made from gene-edited cells from the Nicobar pigeon for the dodo and possibly the emu for the moa. [...] Some other scientists are thrilled because the artificial eggs could also help save birds and reptiles on the brink of extinction.
[...] "We're undoing the sins of the past," says Ben Lamm, Colossal's co-founder and CEO. "There's nothing more ethical than what we're doing." (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Trevor Snyder pulls open an incubator and gently lifts out a device that looks like a high-tech coffee pod. It's black, with a honeycomb bottom. A clear flat top reveals what's inside. "This is a chicken embryo," says Snyder, a bioengineer at Colossal Biosciences in Dallas...
[...] Snyder and his colleagues developed this 3D-printed plastic egg to advance one of Colossal's big goals: resurrecting the dodo and another extinct flightless bird called the giant moa, which looked like a giant ostrich when it roamed New Zealand hundreds of years ago.
[...] The moa's eggs were about the size of a football, which is far larger than the eggs of the moa's closest living relatives, such as the emu.
"There's no bird on Earth today that could grow a moa embryo inside of one of their eggs," Snyder tells NPR during a recent tour of the company's lab. "So we have to come up with artificial eggs to be able to support those embryos. But to understand all the things that the egg needs to do, we're starting with chicken eggs."
On Tuesday, Colossal announced that it had hatched healthy chicken chicks that were incubated in the company's artificial eggs, providing a proof of concept that they work.
[...] The company's plan is to try to recreate dodos and moas from embryos made from gene-edited cells from the Nicobar pigeon for the dodo and possibly the emu for the moa. [...] Some other scientists are thrilled because the artificial eggs could also help save birds and reptiles on the brink of extinction.
[...] "We're undoing the sins of the past," says Ben Lamm, Colossal's co-founder and CEO. "There's nothing more ethical than what we're doing." (MORE - missing details)