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Maori tribe, Peter Jackson, and Colossal Biosciences team up to 'de-extinct' New Zealand’s giant moa
NEW ZEALAND, JUL 10 – The project aims to restore the extinct giant moa using genetic engineering and collaboration with Māori researchers, backed by $15 million from Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh.
- Colossal Biosciences and New Zealand director Peter Jackson announced a $15 million project to genetically engineer living birds resembling the extinct South Island Giant Moa.
- The effort follows advances in DNA extraction from well-preserved moa bones, of which Jackson and Fran Walsh own around 400 samples already analyzed for DNA.
- The extinct moa were large, wingless birds native exclusively to New Zealand, varying in size from species comparable to turkeys up to enormous individuals reaching 3.6 meters in height and weighing around 230 kilograms.
- Colossal’s chief scientist Beth Shapiro explained that the project will compare moa DNA sequences to genomes of living birds, such as tinamous and emus, to identify unique traits.
- The partnership with Ngāi Tahu aims to house resurrected moa in secure ecological reserves, while Colossal and Jackson stressed the birds will not roam freely in Christchurch.
169 Articles
169 Articles
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De-extinction Company Claims It Will Bring Back Giant Ice Age Moa Bird
The extinct giant moa in the Auckland Museum. Credit: Auckland Museum Collections / CC BY 2.0 A biotech company based in the United States, says it will attempt to bring back the South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus), a towering flightless bird that went extinct in New Zealand around 600 years ago, in a de-extinction effort. The company, Colossal Biosciences, announced the project on July 8, describing it as part of its broader mission to r…
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