It is thus just and fitting, and a form of reparations, that these indigenous people will have a big hand in trying to bring back the one unlucky species of moa chosen for “de-extinction.” To see why this endeavor will not happen in our time, have a look at my Boston Globe op-ed explaining why this “experiment” is not only impossible with our present technology, but also unethical. One thing it is, however, is lucrative, with donors ranging from Paris Hilton to wealthy and famous football players. This time, since the moa is a bird from New Zealand, kiwi moviemaker Peter Jackson has kicked in— probably a lot of money.
Apparently Mr. Jackson is unaware of the formidable problems of truly resurrecting a species in its genetic entirety, and doesn’t know that an ostrich with a few genes derived from ancient moa DNA is not a real moa. It would lack, for one thing, the genes that built the moa brain, affecting its behavior and ability to deal with the environment. And there are no close relatives to serve as surrogates. (I can’t give links here because the internet is so damn slow.)
The NZ website Stuff, along with a tweet by Colossal Bioscience itself (the latter still calls itself “The de-extinction company”) describes the insanity.
Apparently Mr. Jackson is unaware of the formidable problems of truly resurrecting a species in its genetic entirety, and doesn’t know that an ostrich with a few genes derived from ancient moa DNA is not a real moa. It would lack, for one thing, the genes that built the moa brain, affecting its behavior and ability to deal with the environment. And there are no close relatives to serve as surrogates. (I can’t give links here because the internet is so damn slow.)
The NZ website Stuff, along with a tweet by Colossal Bioscience itself (the latter still calls itself “The de-extinction company”) describes the insanity.
Our mainstream media does it again! On 9 July we have more nonsense, presented as science (Burr, 2025). Apparently, Colossal Biosciences believes that it can de-extinct the moa within the next decade and that the moa will be alive and walking by 2035.
Apparently, Colossal Biosciences has teamed up with South Island iwi [tribe]Ngāi Tahu, Canterbury Museum and Sir Peter Jackson to bring the moa back to life. These groups have signed up to a strategic partnership which aims to de-extinct nine moa sub-species, starting with the South Island giant moa. Burr informs us that this situation leaves the door open to resurrect other extinct species too – such as the huia.
Unfortunately, Colossal Biosciences knows very well that bringing any extinct species to life is completely impossible and in effect it has already admitted so in relation to much publicized attempts to recreate the “dire wolf” (Le Page, 2025).
. . . Professor Jerry Coyne explains the problems in more or less the following terms (Coyne, 2025). Attempts to bring back extinct species are scientifically misguided and mis-reported by the press. He says that the press distorts what has been achieved scientifically, and pretends that an animal with only a few cosmetic gene edits is identical to an extinct species.
Changing a living species by editing a few genes to get something that looks like the extinct creature is not the same thing as re-creating the extinct creature. Professor Coyne tells us that extinct species embodied thousands of genetic differences from related modern species, including genes that affect metabolism and behavior. Control regions of genes, which lie outside protein-coding regions, are involved in differences between extinct species and their relatives, but we do not know where these regions are and so cannot use them for genetic editing.
Some unwarranted optimism:
Particularly worrying is an assurance from Canterbury Museum’s senior curator, Paul Scofield, that it will happen.
“This will happen. There’s no doubt about it whatsoever. This is the world’s foremost group of scientists working to this goal now.”
Sorry! It will not happen! The practical challenges are much too great. But the real problem for New Zealand is not only a biased media, but one that is scientifically illiterate, ready to put false ideas into the public domain, and that refuses to publish the considered responses of professional scientists.
Well, it may happen, but not in our lifetime—unless you’re less than ten years old and Colossal stays in business that long. I will be in the clay before anything close to a moa “de-extinction” occurs, so I won’t have to apologize on this website for raining on Colossal’s ever-changing parade. Remember when the company said they’d “de-extincted” the dire wolf, then admitted that they hadn’t really resurrected the dire wolf but then later did a 180° turn with Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief scientific officer, arguing that yes, they had brought back the dire wolf? To do this, she had to adopt the Species Concept That Nobody Holds (SCTNH), which is roughly this: “If something resembles in any way another species, then it they are members of the same species.” By those lights, we’re the same species as chimps and bonobos.
I was sent both a tweet from Colossal as well as their latest YouTube video about the project. I can’t see either of them here since the Internet is so bad, but watch and judge for yourself.
All I can say is that to pretend that a few gene edits can bring a species back to life is to be both disingenuous and arrogant. But of course if Colossal admitted the truth, they’d be out of business. That’s why they pretend that the edited gray wolf they confected is really a “de-extincted dire wolf.”
Professor Jerry Coyne is an American biologist known for his work on speciation and his commentary on intelligent design, a prolific scientist and author. This article was first published HERE
1 comment:
This is just a further instance of lies and propaganda from Ngai Tahu and woke academics being uncritically promoted by Stuff. It is also another instance where NZ has had to rely on Prof Coyne to tell us the truth which most academics here are too ideologically compromised to tell us themselves (with some exceptions, such as David Lillis' excellent column two days ago).
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