Texas Firm Sets Machine Intelligence to Work on the Return of the Dodo

TEXAS, U.S.A. — Researchers at Colossal Biosciences, a Texas company, report they have moved a step nearer to reviving the dodo, the flightless bird that vanished from Mauritius in the 17th century after human settlement, according to The Debrief.

The company's tool is an artificial intelligence platform called GenoMorph. By its account, the system combines comparative genomics, developmental biology and three-dimensional measurements of the bird's anatomy to find the genetic changes behind the dodo's body and beak. A preprint on the server arXiv describes the work.

The scientists compared regulatory activity in chickens, ducks, pigeons, quail and other birds against genomic data and physical measurements from more than 70 species. According to the report, they found over 650 candidate regulatory DNA elements tied to beak size and 1,698 tied to beak thickness and breadth. The article stresses that these are candidates, not confirmed causes, and must be tested experimentally.

Colossal also says its improved dodo genome assembly spans close to 95 percent of bases, and that its flock of Nicobar pigeons, the dodo's closest living relative, has grown to three dozen. It reports cultivating reproductive precursor cells that might one day carry edits. Chief Science Officer Beth Shapiro said the company is "in the final stages of our analysis of the dodo genome," with peer review still to come.

Anna Keyte, the firm's avian species director, told The Debrief the chief difficulty is turning the genome into the traits that make a dodo look like one. The firm must also show that edited pigeon germ cells can yield healthy offspring.

The article notes the work is at times controversial. Of the company's 2025 dire wolf pups, some experts observed they were modern wolves engineered to resemble the extinct animal, not truly resurrected dire wolves.