Colossal Biosciences reports progress toward resurrecting the dodo using AI platform

Mixed · 2Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based US biotech company, said on Wednesday 14 October 2026 that it is making progress toward resurrecting the dodo and returning it to Mauritius, where humans drove it to extinction. 1 2 Mixed · 2The company said it used a newly built AI platform, GenoMorph, to identify genetic changes that may explain the dodo's distinctive craniofacial traits. 1 2 Centre · 1Chief science officer Beth Shapiro said scientists have only one complete dodo genome, so the usual method of comparing many genomes from one species is not possible. Instead, GenoMorph studies how skulls and beaks develop across more than 70 living bird species and learns which genetic switches control their shape. It produced a shortlist of about 2,300 candidates linked to beak size and shape, which are now being validated in the lab. 1

Mixed · 2Colossal plans to edit dodo traits into the cells of the Nicobar pigeon, the dodo's closest living relative, which is native to some Southeast Asian islands and, unlike the dodo, can fly. 1 2 Mixed · 2The company said it is in the final stages of analysing the dodo genome, now filled to 95 per cent, and has made an advance that should shorten the time needed to test whether a genetic edit produces the desired trait. It also said its Texas colony of Nicobar pigeons has grown to 36 birds after successful breeding. It did not announce a timeframe for hatching a dodo. 1 2 Mixed · 2CEO Ben Lamm, speaking to Reuters, named the big hurdles as proving which genetic changes matter, making many of those edits in a bird and passing them to the next generation, and preparing a safe home for dodos on Mauritius. 1 2

Mixed · 2Lamm said Colossal is working with Mauritian scientists, conservation groups and the Mauritius government. He said preparing the island means removing invasive predators and restoring habitat, and that no release sites will be chosen until ecological work and community consultation are finalised. 1 2 Mixed · 2The dodo was a ground-nesting bird about 3 feet (1 metre) tall and up to about 50 pounds (23 kg). It was last seen in 1662, and Lamm called it the best-known symbol of extinction caused by people. 1 2 Mixed · 2Last year Colossal said it had produced the dire wolf by editing gray wolf genes. Its other de-extinction targets are the woolly mammoth, the thylacine, the bluebuck antelope and the moa. 1 2