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Could we bring the dodo back from extinction?

dodo.Science Photo Library

Could scientists help bring this feathery bird back to life?

Could we bring the dodo back from extinction? A group of scientists think it could be possible!

The dodo became extinct - meaning there are no more left of them in the world - in the 17th Century, around 100 years after it was first discovered.

In a recent discussion by the Royal Society, Professor Beth Shapiro, from the University of California, in the US, shared that her research team had managed to sequence the DNA of a dodo.

This means they have managed to discover and write out the key genetic information that makes up the bird which they hope could be used to try to bring the dodo back to life!

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What was the dodo like?

dodo.Getty Images

The dodo was a flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius, in the Indian ocean.

Fossils of the bird show that some of them reached a metre tall, and they looked a bit like a chicken with a large beak.

It became extinct after being hunted by humans, and invasive species - like cats and dogs - that the humans had brought with them.

The dodo got its name from the Portuguese word for 'fool' after sailors joked about its lack of fear of human hunters.

How can scientists bring animals back from the dead?

As part of her research, Professor Shapiro and her team took a DNA sample from a dodo specimen at the Natural History Museum in Copenhagen, in Denmark.

From looking at it they were able to learn more about its genetic information - a bit like a complicated instruction manual in a Lego building kit, to help the researchers learn how the dodo is put together.

What do the words mean?

  • DNA: is the chemical name for a long molecule that contains the genetic instructions of all living things.

  • Gene: a short section of DNA

  • Chromosome: are bundles of DNA and proteins. Different creatures have different numbers of chromosomes.

  • Genome: a complete set of all the genetic information in a living thing. It has all of the instructions the living thing needs to function.

"If I have a cell and it's living in a dish in the lab and I edit it so that it has a bit of dodo DNA, how do I then transform that cell into a whole living, breathing, actual animal">