‘Jurassic Park’-style scientists are working on resurrecting extinct species including the dodo.
Jurassic Park-style scientists are working on resurrecting extinct species including the dodo
The researchers also think using the ancient beasts’ DNA could create animals whose genetics will hold the keys to wildlife and humans surviving extreme weather changes.
Professor Beth Shapiro, chief science officer at the world’s first “de-extinction” company Colossal Biosciences said: “Being able to reach far back into the past to a period of time where the climate was warmer than it is today can give us some better idea of how communities are organised or how different species have adapted to be able to thrive in different climates.
“It’s not to say that species are necessarily going to stop going extinct altogether.
“But I certainly think that we should have a growing set of resources that we can use to stop species from becoming extinct, that are doing so because of things that we are doing, that people are doing to landscapes.”
When asked if unknown ancient species could be resurrected using fragments of DNA, Prof Shapiro added: “Absolutely we could do that. The past by its very nature is different from anything that exists today and so it is ripe for discoveries.
“We’re like explorers, but instead of going to distant places on the planet, we’re going to the distant past, and we don’t really know what we’re going to find.”
The professor added they are focusing on bringing back an ancient “equid” that existed almost 1 million years ago.
She said: “My own academic research lab has discovered a new species of Arctic equid that lived in North America some 700,000 years ago.
“It’s not a horse, it’s not a donkey, but it’s something related to those lineages. “We will discover things that the fossil record doesn’t know about and hopefully we can use that information to resurrect traits in living species that perhaps can help them to adapt to wherever our future is going.”
Along with the dodo, Texas-based firm Colossal is working on reviving creatures including the mammoth and Tasmanian tiger.
Their work echoes that of Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film ‘Jurassic Park’, which saw experts using DNA preserved in a fossil to clone dinosaurs.