Colossal has take another big step toward bringing back the dodo

Using a new AI tool, the de-extinction company has narrowed down the genetic changes needed to recreate the famously extinct bird.

Since its founding in 2021, Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences has sought to bring back extinct animals, including the dodo, the iconic flightless bird once endemic to Mauritius. It was documented by humans when the Portuguese first arrived on the island in the 16th century, but hasn’t been seen in hundreds of years. The columbid (a 3-foot-tall member of the Columbidae family, which includes modern pigeons and doves) struggled to survive the arrival of new invasive species and human hunting, and, as the saying goes, went “the way of the dodo.”