F. John from “Tiere der Urwelt,” or Animals of the Prehistoric World, issued in 1910 as part of a series of cards published by the Reichardt Cocoa company.
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The biotech firm trying to bring extinct species back to life, Colossal Biosciences Inc., has acquired a rare egg of a flightless bird called the moa and will return it to its native New Zealand.
The egg was purchased for around $14,000 at auction and is only one of a handful of complete or near complete moa shells known to exist. Moa, which stood up to 12 feet tall and weighed as much as 500 pounds, died out about 600 years ago — and is among the species that Colossal is trying to “de-extinct” alongside the woolly mammoth, dodo, dire wolf and the Tasmanian tiger.
The egg — nearly double the volume of an ostrich egg and measuring about 8.7 by 6.7 inches — will be handed to Professor Te Maire Tau, a Maori historian and tribal leader based in the Canterbury region of New Zealand’s South Island.
“To quote Indiana Jones, ‘It belongs in a museum,’ a museum in Aotearoa, under the care of the people whose ancestors lived alongside these extraordinary birds,” Colossal co-founder and Chief Executive Ben Lamm said in a statement, referring to New Zealand by its name in the Maori language.
The moa egg was discovered in New Zealand on Jan. 14, 1966, and remained in a private American collection for about six decades before Dallas-based Colossal purchased it at auction from Artemis Gallery in Louisville, Colo., in June, according to the company.
“When we launched the moa program, we made a clear commitment that indigenous leadership would guide the science and every decision surrounding the project. Securing and transporting this egg back to its rightful home is just part of that commitment,” Lamm said.
Such eggshells have helped scientists recover ancient DNA, and their structure and thickness have helped researchers understand how moa nested and incubated their eggs. The egg has been reconstructed from many fragments, with further pieces still to be reattached under the guidance of researchers from Ngai Tahu, a South Island Maori tribe.
Beyond the Jurassic Park-style allure, Colossal says its work may set de-extinction standards and help reverse some of the damage caused by the loss of Earth’s biodiversity.
Lamm told Bloomberg News in an email that the company is making “great progress” on its moa project and could be on track to resurrect the bird by the early 2030s, though this timeline could change. He said it was entirely up to the Ngai Tahu Research Center when the public would see the prehistoric bird.
“Some of the editing technologies and delivery mechanisms are ahead of schedule, benefiting from our dodo project. We recently announced a new AI tool focused on the dodo that will also play a pivotal role in the moa de-extinction,” he said.
Moa birds provided meat, feathers and bones for Indigenous peoples’ use, according to Colossal’s website. Resurrecting the moa would require gene editing and using modern birds as surrogates. Target species for moa studies include its closest relatives: Australia’s emu and Central America’s tinamou.
Film director Peter Jackson, who invested in Colossal and is working with the Ngāi Tahu Research Center and Canterbury Museum on the moa program, said every New Zealander grows up knowing the moa and feeling its loss.
“When we learned that this exceptionally rare moa egg was being sold outside of New Zealand, we spoke to Colossal, who not only offered to rescue it at their own considerable expense — but to also fly it privately to New Zealand, so it returns home safely,” Jackson said. “After expert restoration, it will very likely become only the ninth known nearly intact moa egg — probably one of the five best-preserved examples.”
Paul Scofield, a senior curator of natural history at Canterbury Museum who is advising on the project, said in an interview that the prospect of bringing moa back and putting them into a New Zealand environment was exciting.
“It’s effectively a grand experiment, but it’s also far more than that,” Scofield said. “It’s actually an opportunity for Maori to reengage with moa in a real face-to- face situation, and also an economic opportunity.”
Thomson writes for Bloomberg.
