Scientists are trying to bring the dodo back to life.
Scientists are attempting to revive the dodo
The bird went extinct in the 17th century but gene-editing techniques now exist that allows boffins to bring the creature back to at least a semblance of life.
Experts will mine the dodo genome for key traits that can effectively reassemble within the body of a living relative. According to the sequencing, dodos are most closely related to pigeons.
The scientists believe that their work could help the conservation of rare species that are yet to go extinct but biologists are torn over whether the studies should be pursued.
The gene-editing firm Colossal Biosciences are leading the project and the company has already embarked on attempts to revive the woolly mammoth.
Beth Shapiro, lead palaeogeneticist at Colossal, explained that she has been fascinated by the dodo for more than two decades but warned that the revived species will not be an exact replacement for the bird that went extinct.
She told The Guardian newspaper: "What we are trying to do is to isolate the genes that distinguish the dodo. It would be crazy to think the solution (to the world's biodiversity crisis) was to bring back a proxy."