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The Dodo Bird: A De-extinction Challenge to Humanity’s Perception of Utility
Do we need it? Can we eat it? And what benefit will it provide to humans?
Kathryn’s piece was first posted on the Colossal Biosciences blog and has been cross-posted on Bioeconomy.XYZ
In February of 2023, Colossal Biosciences announced its Series B funding. This funding round of $150M was a vote of financial confidence that the company was well on its way to achieving its scientific milestones and would continue to catalyze significant progress across the woolly mammoth and thylacine de-extinction projects as well as existing and planned conservation efforts. In conjunction with the funding, Colossal also announced the launch of its Avian Genomics Group. This group would focus on expanding humanity’s current understanding of the Aves class while also addressing major problems in birds–across de-extinction, conservation, and rewilding.
And it could not have come at a better time as there has been tremendous stress on bird populations around the world which have been surviving rampant parasitic infections, unknown diseases, and the worst outbreak of avian flu this century. And these stressors have not been isolated to bird populations as the avian flu has now been recorded as…