Lord of the Rings director aims to bring back long-extinct New Zealand bird
Colossal Biosciences, in partnership with New Zealand 's Ngāi Tahu Research Centre, aims to genetically engineer living birds to resemble the 3.6-metre-tall South Island giant moa.
While Jackson is motivated by a childhood fascination, outside scientists express scepticism, deeming de-extinction "likely impossible" and raising concerns about diverting focus from protecting existing species.
The initial phase involves identifying well-preserved moa bones for DNA extraction, comparing sequences to living birds like the tinamou and emu, and overcoming unique challenges in bird embryo development.
The project also involves Māori scholars from the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre, who will shape its direction and explore the cultural significance of the moa, which became extinct around 600 years ago due to overhunting.
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Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Company attempting to bring back woolly mammoth turn their sights to the giant moa - a 3.6 metre-tall bird that weighed 230kg
The company attempting to bring back the woolly mammoth has now set its sights on a new extinct species. Colossal Biosciences has announced it will attempt to 'de-extinct' a group of birds called the moa, which once lived in New Zealand. These extraordinary animals included nine species, the largest being the South Island Giant Moa, which stood at 3.6 metres (11.8ft) tall and weighed 230 kg (507 lbs). Colossal Biosciences will use genes extracted from moa bones to engineer modern birds until they very closely resemble the extinct moa. This is the same technique that was used to transform grey wolves into animals closely resembling dire wolves last year. This project will be done in collaboration with the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre at the University of Canterbury and backed by $15 million in funding from Lord of the Rings director Sir Peter Jackson. Jackson, who has one of the largest private collections of moa bones, says: 'With the recent resurrection of the dire wolf, Colossal Biosciences has also made real the possibility of bringing back lost species. 'There's a lot of science still to be done – but we can start looking forward to the day when birds like the moa or the huia are rescued from the darkness of extinction.' The nine species of moa were found widely across New Zealand until the arrival of the first Polynesian settlers around 1300 AD. Within just 200 years, the people who became the Māori had pushed all moa species into extinction through a combination of hunting and forest clearing. The disappearance of the moa also led to a cascade of changes across New Zealand's isolated island ecosystem. Less than 100 years after the moa became extinct their main predator, the enormous Haast's eagle, also died out. But now, advances in genome editing techniques mean Colossal Biosciences may be able to reintroduce the lost moa back to its natural habitat. The first step is to recreate the genomes of all nine moa species using ancient DNA stored in preserved moa bones. Colossal Biosciences has already begun this process with visits to caves containing moa deposits within the tribal area of the Ngāi Tahu and hopes to complete all genomes by 2026. These genomes will then be compared to those of the moa's closest living relatives, the emu and tinamou, to see which genes gave the moa their unique traits. How will the moa be brought back? DNA is extracted from moa bones to sequence the moa genome. The genome is compared to modern species to see which genes make the moa distinct. CRISPR is used to alter the genome of modern birds to express these target genes. Edited embryos are placed in a surrogate emu egg to develop. A bird closely resembling the moa hatches. A selection of these genes are then inserted into stem cells called Primordial Germ Cell Culture, cells that turn into eggs and sperm, taken from an emu. Those engineered cells are allowed to develop into male and female gametes and used to create an embryo, which will be raised inside a surrogate emu egg. Colossal Biosciences has already used these techniques to create mice with the hair of woolly mammoths and wolves very closely resembling extinct dire wolves. Scientists used the gene editing tool CRISPR to modify the DNA in blood cells from a living grey wolf in 20 places, creating a wolf with long white hair and muscular jaws. However, recreating this process in bird species poses much greater technical challenges. Colossal Biosciences admits that creating Primordial Germ Cell Culture for bird species has been a challenge that has eluded scientists for decades. Likewise, since bird embryos develop inside eggs, the process of transferring an embryo into a surrogate will be completely different from that used for mammals. Scientists have also raised questions about whether restoring the moa is something that should be pursued at all. Conservationists say that money would be better spent looking after the endangered species that are already alive. Others point out that introducing a species which has been gone for over 600 years could have unintended consequences for the ecosystem. Professor Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University who was not involved in the study, told AP: 'Can you put a species back into the wild once you've exterminated it there? 'I think it's exceedingly unlikely that they could do this in any meaningful way.' Professor Pimm adds: 'This will be an extremely dangerous animal.' However, Colossal Biosciences maintains that their plan to 'rewild' the moa is beneficial for both the environment and the Māori people. As grazing herbivores, the moa's browsing habits shaped the distribution and evolution of plants over millions of years. These effects led to significant changes in New Zealand's ecosystems, which Colossal Biosciences argues would be more stable with the moa once again introduced. Ngāi Tahu archaeologist Kyle Davis, who is working with Colossal Biosciences on the project, says that the project has a deeper ancestral meaning. During the 14th century, the moa were a vital source of meat for sustenance as well as bones and feathers, which became part of traditional jewellery. The moa came to have a large role in Māori mythology, symbolising strength and resilience. Mr Davis says: 'Our earliest ancestors in this place lived alongside moa and our records, both archaeological and oral, contain knowledge about these birds and their environs. 'We relish the prospect of bringing that into dialogue with Colossal's cutting-edge science as part of a bold vision for ecological restoration.' WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT ANCIENT MEGAFAUNA? Earth was once inhabited by a variety of giant forms of animals that would be recognisable to us today in the smaller forms taken by their successors. They were very large, usually over 88 pounds (40kg) in weight and generally at least 30 per cent bigger than any of their still-living relatives. There are several theories to explain this relatively sudden extinction. The leading explanation of around was that this was due to environmental and ecological factors. It was almost completed by the end of the last ice age. It is believed that megafauna initially came into existence in response to glacial conditions and became extinct with the onset of warmer climates. In temperate Eurasia and North America, megafauna extinction concluded simultaneously with the replacement of the vast periglacial tundra by an immense area of forest. Glacial species, such as mammoths and woolly rhinoceros, were replaced by animals better adapted to forests, such as elk, deer and pigs. Reindeer and Caribou retreated north, while horses moved south to the central Asian steppe. This all happened about 10,000 years ago, despite the fact that humans colonised North America less than 15,000 years ago and non-tropical Eurasia nearly one million years ago. Worldwide, there is no evidence of Indigenous peoples systematically hunting nor over-killing megafauna. The largest regularly hunted animal was bison in North America and Eurasia, yet it survived for about 10,000 years until the early 20th century.
The Herald Scotland
16 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Extinct New Zealand bird latest species Colossal wants to bring back
"Why aren't you doing the moa, which is a thing that I really care about?" Jackson told USA TODAY he asked the genetics wizards at the company, referencing the species of flightless birds which were indigenous to New Zealand but went extinct about 600 years ago. "I mean, the Tasmanian tiger ... and the mammoth's great, and everything else, but the moa is the thing that I was really passionate about," Jackson said. "And they said, 'sure we'd love to do it'." What is a 'sprite'?: NASA astronaut captures rare phenomenon from 250 miles above Earth Evidence of Jackson's passion about the moa: over the past 20 years or so, the filmmaker and his partner Fran Walsh had amassed a collection of more than 300 moa bones. As Jackson learned more about Colossal - DNA in ancient dire wolf bones helped create a dire wolf genome - he could envision the possible de-extinction of the moa. "With the recent resurrection of the dire wolf, Colossal has also made real the possibility of bringing back lost species," Jackson said in a press release about the new project. An advisor on the moa project, Jackson helped involve the Ngai Tahu Research Centre at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. The centre - established in 2011 to support education for the Ngai Tahu, the main Maori tribe of southern New Zealand - will direct the project, which also includes animal conservation efforts and the biobanking of other native species for preservation. "Every decision we make along the way in the research and the de-extinction is being led by them and governed and supported by them," said Ben Lamm, CEO and co-founder of Colossal, which is also creating a New Zealand subsidiary of the company. "It's been massively rewarding, because it also affords us the ability to get so much deeper in the culture in a way that we've never even done when we worked with other indigenous groups around the world." What animal is Colossal looking to bring back next? The South Island Giant Moa, so named because it was indigenous to New Zealand's south island. While there were nine distinct species of the wingless moa - including birds the size of turkeys - the South Island Giant Moa stood out, approaching 12 feet tall with its neck outstretched. Considered the world's tallest bird before it went extinct, "it's part of a family of large birds that once inhabited our ancestral tribal territories," said Kyle Davis, a Ngai Tahu archaeologist who has helped search for moa fossils as part of the project. The Giant Moa was "gigantic," weighing up to 250 kilograms (550 pounds), Paul Scofield, an moa expert and advisor on the project, told USA TODAY. "It was heavily covered in feathers from the head and even down the legs. It had really very massive feet, far more massive than any bird," said Stevens, the senior curator of natural history at Canterbury Museum, which has the world's largest collection of moa bones. A kick from the moa could be deadly, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, which noted the moa fed on seeds, fruits, leaves, and grasses, and laid one large egg of up to 7 inches in diameter. Experts say there were about 150,000 of the tall birds when the Polynesian settlers came to south New Zealand. Within about 150 years, they were extinct, said Mike Stevens, the director of the Ngai Tahu Research Centre, in the press release. "During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, moa provided meat for sustenance, and bones and feathers for tools and decoration," especially in Te Wahipounamu (the official Maori name for southwest New Zealand), he said. The Giant Moa remains a symbol for the people of the south island and its potential resurrection fits within the country's many ongoing conservation efforts including the protection and resurgence of the kakapo, a flightless parrot. Research into de-extinction of the moa will likely shed light on New Zealand's ecological past. "It's really going to answer so many questions about prehistoric New Zealand," Scofield said. "Every single thing we discover about this amazing animal is really going to help flesh out what New Zealand was before humans arrived." So far, Colossal has created a genome of the tinamou, thought to be the closest living relative of the moa. While there's a lot of work ahead, Jackson envisions a natural environment for the Giant Moa to roam when it returns, he said in a promotional video about the project. "We're now at the point where being extinct isn't really the end of the story." Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY's Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @ & @mikesnider & msnider@ What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day
The Guardian
21 hours ago
- The Guardian
MethaneSat down: how New Zealand space ambitions fell off the radar
For scientist Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher, the news that a methane-tracking satellite was lost in space last week left her feeling like the air had been sucked from her lungs. It happened just days before New Zealand was due to take control of the spacecraft, known as MethaneSat, which was designed to 'name and shame' the worst methane polluters in the oil and gas industry. 'It was a pretty challenging moment in my career,' says Mikaloff-Fletcher, the Wellington-based lead of New Zealand's part of the mission. 'I was anticipating until a couple of days before this news that this would be a healthy mission that would last three to five years.' The satellite was New Zealand's first publicly funded space mission. Yet the project had been plagued with issues and delays, and last week officials confirmed that after only 15 months in orbit the satellite had lost contact with the ground and was likely unrecoverable. The loss of the satellite dealt a heavy blow to the country's fledgling government-funded space sector. New Zealand initially invested NZ$29m in MethaneSat, a project led by the US non-profit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) with other finance coming from the Bezos Earth Fund, the Audacious Project and the Valhalla Foundation. The satellite's primary goal was to detect methane leaks from oil and gas production worldwide. But in New Zealand, Mikaloff-Fletcher leads a complementary project to explore if the satellite could also track the release of the potent greenhouse gas from agriculture. Methane from livestock accounts for almost half of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions. The project was years in the making and some experts have criticised New Zealand's involvement. In 2019, the government agreed to invest in the mission but the satellite's launch was delayed until March 2024. Almost NZ$12m of the funding was used to build a mission control centre at Rocket Lab, a private space company with a launchpad on the remote east coast of New Zealand and also operating from the US. The University of Auckland was to take over mission control last year but problems led to further delays. They included the satellite going into safe mode due to intense solar activity, and issues with operating its thrusters. The university never took control because the satellite stopped responding on 20 June. By this point New Zealand's total investment had risen to NZ$32m, according to the New Zealand Space Agency, because of additional funding allocated to maintain capability to take over operations. Judith Collins, minister for space in the New Zealand government, declined to comment on the loss of MethaneSat. The deputy head of the New Zealand Space Agency, Andrew Johnson, described it as 'clearly a disappointing development'. But Johnson says involvement in the mission has strengthened New Zealand's expertise and space capability, and the mission control centre at the University of Auckland's Te Pūnaha Ātea Space Institute will continue to be used as a training facility to position the country for future missions. However, Richard Easther, a University of Auckland physicist who is not involved in the project, says it was a mistake for New Zealand to invest in MethaneSat. He was initially excited about the mission, but says it's become 'clear they haven't been able to keep to schedule and deliver a functional spacecraft'. While the mission was deploying new methane-detecting sensors, the design of the spacecraft itself was not as well defined as it should have been when New Zealand invested in it and parts of it 'haven't been tested in space'. MethaneSat's mission lead and chief scientist for EDF Steve Hamburg says the mission was 'technologically ambitious' and the team that developed the satellite 'includes some of the world's most seasoned professionals in both public and private sector space flight'. Johnson says the providers of the satellite's structural and functional components, as well as the sensor, were selected before New Zealand joined the mission, but given the expertise of the professionals involved, 'we had no reason to doubt their judgement.' Jon Coifman, a spokesperson for MethaneSat, says it was unclear what caused the loss of contact, but an expert panel had been set up to investigate. The existing datasets would remain accessible 'for the foreseeable future' and more data would be released over the next few months. The team remains 'undeterred in our efforts to drive down methane pollution'. 'No other satellite could match the ability to detect changes in methane levels with such high resolution and high sensitivity over such wide areas,' Coifman says. Mikaloff-Fletcher says there have been other missions that have faced similar challenges. 'A great example is Nasa's Orbital Carbon Observatory mission, meant to deliver the most precise measurements of carbon dioxide ever made from space. It was launched in 2009 and fell into the ocean without making a single measurement,' Mikaloff-Fletcher says, though she notes further satellites were launched to achieve the mission. She says MethaneSat did record data that will be useful in tracking agricultural emissions, and her work in the field will continue despite the setback. Preliminary analysis shows the satellite's observations over agricultural targets in New Zealand line up well with modelling and measurements collected by aircraft-borne instruments, suggesting 'we will be able to quantify agricultural emissions in a wide range of different farming systems from existing data'. 'The satellite's life may be shorter than hoped, but the project will go on to shed new light on agricultural emissions from the data we have.'
