Commentary: Are dodos and mammoths coming back from extinction? Don't count on it

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My inbox started filling up with the supposedly groundbreaking news early Tuesday, breathless news articles about a biological breakthrough that will allow a long-extinct giant bird to walk the Earth in modern times.My reaction was this: “Not this same old yarn again.”The company promoting its supposed breakthrough is Colossal Biosciences.

That’s the Dallas business that created a PR-fueled frenzy last year with an announcement that it had brought the dire wolf back from extinction.The de-extinction breathlessness potentially endangers real animals for the sake of hypothetical future de-extincted ones.— Biologist Paul Knoepfler, UC DavisIts announcement caught fire because the dire wolf was a species depicted in the TV series “Game of Thrones” — indeed, part of the company’s publicity campaign featured a shot of George R.R.

Martin, the author of the Game of Thrones books, cradling a fluffy wolf-like pup in his arms.Colossal’s latest announcement was that it has hatched 26 chickens in an “artificial egg” — a “foundational step,” it said, “toward resurrecting extinct bird species” such as the New Zealand giant moa and the dodo.Commentary on economics and more from a Pulitzer Prize winner.By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service, which include arbitration and a class action waiver.

You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy such as personalizing your experience and ads.The announcement resembled Colossal’s rollout of the “dire wolf” pups: Publications that had received guided tours of its lab produced breathless articles taking Colossal’s claims at face value, generally lacking skeptical commentary by unaffiliated biologists.The company’s latest announcement is connected with its lar...