De-extinction plan may go the way of the dodo

‘Largely frugivorous, dodos would need enough forest to follow the fruiting of different tree species through the seasons to survive.’ Photograph: Marc Andreu/Courtesy of Colossal Biosciences

As a historian of the dodo and its island habitat, the Jurassic Park-style plan to “de-extinct” it, long discussed in theory, came as no surprise (Gene editing company hopes to bring dodo ‘back to life’, 31 January). Much as I respect Beth Shapiro’s skill with ancient DNA, first seen with dodos in research seminars here in Oxford in the late 1990s, I am sceptical as to how this will work.

First, the dodo was over twice the size of the next nearest pigeon, the crowned pigeons (Goura species) of New Guinea, and its growing chick thus far too big for the pigeon eggs proposed for its incubation – whereas mammoths and elephants are similar in size, so embryo transfers there might well work.