First the Dire Wolf, Now the Dodo Bird? Scientists Grow Cells That Could Revive Extinct Species After 300 Years

Skeleton cast and model of the dodo bird at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History made in 1998 (Credit: BazzaDaRambler/Oxford University Museum of Natural History)

Biotech firm Colossal Biosciences, famed for its controversial de-extinction projects, says it has achieved a breakthrough in efforts to revive the long-lost dodo bird.

Five months after claiming to bring back the dire wolf, the Texas-based company revealed its researchers have successfully grown pigeon primordial germ cells, a key step in gene editing toward resurrecting the bird that vanished from Mauritius more than three centuries ago.