Scientists plan to bring back mammoths and dodo birds

A GROUP of scientists are planning to bring back mammoths, dodos and Tasmanian tigers by using fossilised DNA in a real-life rerun of Jurassic Park.

Colossal Biosciences scientists are combing the New Siberian Islands looking for frozen remains of mammoths to sequence their DNA and attempt to clone the creatures in a process known as de-extinction – bringing a lost creature back to life.

The team is led by Harvard University geneticist George Church, known as “the founding father of genomics”, and business entrepreneur Ben Lamm.

But mammoths, that became extinct more than 3,700 years ago, are just the tip of the iceberg. Plans also include bringing back the dodo bird, endemic to Mauritius and which disappeared in the 17^th century, and Tasmanian tigers, extinct since 1936.

However, experts consulted by Diari Ara explain that the science behind this hugely ambitious project is still in a “very early stage” and that “the difficulties in all the proposed species are enormous”.

In fact, the dodo could pose the biggest problems, as so far cloning a bird of any species has proved impossible, let alone an extinct one.

According to George Church, resurrecting the mammoth could play a vital environmental role by helping to recover vegetation that would trap and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

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