US company hoping to bring back the dodo and the mammoth – but here’s why it won’t be like Jurassic Park
The idea of scientists bringing pre-historic creatures back to life with some clever DNA trickery might sound familiar to fans of the 1993 Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park.
But for Colossal Biosciences – a company that hopes to reintroduce extinct species such as the dodo and the mammoth – it is more than just a film script.
It’s a reality – and one that could be just years away.
“We’ve got all the technology we need,” says Ben Lamm, chief executive of the firm, based in Dallas, Texas.
“It is just a focus of time and funding. But we are 100% confident [we can bring back] the Tasmanian tiger, the dodo, and the mammoth.”
The science behind the project is simple: Work out the genes that make an extinct animal what it is, and then replicate those genes using the DNA of a close existing relative.
“It’s almost reverse Jurassic Park,” says Mr Lamm, speaking to Sky News.
“In the film, they were filling in the holes in the dinosaur DNA with frog DNA.
“We are leveraging artificial intelligence and other tools to identify the core genes that make a mammoth a mammoth and then engineering them into elephant genomes.”
Ben Lamm, founder and chief executive of Colossal Biosciences. Pic: Colossal
That is the technical part.
But there are some other practical hurdles for Colossal to overcome, namely how, once you have mammoth cells, do you birth a real-life mammoth?
The answer, according to Colossal, is in the womb of an Asian elephant.
But it is a process that could take nearly two years, even after they have worked out how to do it.
“[Each of the] different projects [the mammoth, dodo, and Tasmanian tiger] have different challenges – the mammoth is really around gestation – which is around 22 months,” says Mr Lamm.
“The dodo gestation is pretty great – we are using surrogate chickens. The hardest part is cultivating the primordial germ cells.”
Colossal plans to create cells of extinct animals by genetically engineering the cells of their closest living relatives. Pic: Colossal
Pic: Colossal
‘Feeling good about 2028’
So after around 4,000 years of extinction, when could we see the return of the mighty mammoth – a creature that fell victim to human hunting and the changing conditions brought about by the end of the last Ice Age.
“We are well into the editing phase,” says Mr Lamm.
“We don’t have mammoths yet, but we still feel very good about 2028.”
Away from the lab, led by Eriona Hysolli, Colossal’s head of biological sciences, there are other issues to overcome – including where the newly returned species will live once they are born.
Eriona Hysolli, head of biological sciences at Colossal Biosciences. Pic: Colossal
Mr Lamm says the company is already working with local governments, conservation groups, indigenous people groups, private land lowers, and the public at large, to prepare for the animals to be returned to their natural habitat.
“Our ultimate goal is to put all the animals we make back into the wild,” he says.
‘New tools in the fight’ to protect nature
Colossal says the work is not just about rewilding animals previously lost to the world.
The company is currently working with Dr Paul Ling at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, to create a vaccine to eradicate the deadly EEHV virus – which kills around 20% of baby elephants each year.
It is also working closely with the University of Alaska and the University of Stockholm on radiocarbon dating of American mammoths as well as sequencing their genome – the largest study of its type ever undertaken.
Read more:
Colossal Biosciences announces project to bring back the dodo
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Mr Lamm also hopes that, through Colossal’s research, the company can tackle issues facing the world today, including a drop in biodiversity.
“I think we have a duty to this planet that we’ve been given – we are tending towards a loss of up to 50% biodiversity if we don’t do anything,” he says.
“Modern conservation is great, but we need new tools in the fight.
“Work on de-extinction goes hand-in-hand with species preservation, and if Colossal makes a couple of technologies, then maybe it will provide those tools.”
‘Jurassic Park helps people understand our work’
As for the Jurassic Park comparisons, well, there is one small issue, according to Mr Lamm.
In the Steven Spielberg-directed epic, the scientists use DNA embedded in fossilised mosquitoes in amber combined with frog DNA to bring dinosaurs back to life.
The scientists in Jurassic Park combined dinosaur DNA embedded in fossilised mosquitoes. Pic: PA
“Amber is not a good holder of DNA,” Mr Lamm says.
“But it’s a very entertaining movie and I think Jurassic Park made a lot of people interested in science. I saw it when I was younger and I was like: ‘Wow genetics is cool’.
“It did a lot to explain to the masses that genetic engineering is a thing and something that can be used in powerful ways, and I do think more people understand Colossal because of that.”
The company is also working on a film of its own, and, luckily for everyone, it’s not a dystopian thriller like Jurassic Park.
It has teamed up with award-winning director James Reed, a specialist in nature films, to document its “de-extinction” work.
“It’s really exciting. When you are doing anything bold, it is important to communicate and be transparent, and there’s nothing more transparent than having cameras around all the time,” says Mr Lamm.
Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC, alleging the corporation’s Panorama documentary portrayed him in a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious” manner.
The complaint relates to the broadcaster’s editing of a speech he made in 2021 on the day his supporters overran the Capitol building.
Clips were spliced together from sections of the US president‘s speech on January 6 2021 to make it appear he told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”.
It aired in the documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election.
The US president is seeking damages of no less than $5bn (£3.7bn).
He has also sued for $5bn for alleged violation of a trade practices law. Both lawsuits have been filed in Florida.
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BBC crisis: How did it happen?
‘They put words in my mouth’
Speaking in the Oval Office earlier on Monday, he said: “In a little while, you’ll be seeing I’m suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth.
“Literally, they put words in my mouth. They had me saying things that I never said coming out.”
The scandal erupted earlier this year after a leaked memo highlighted concerns over the way the clips were edited.
After the leak, BBC chair Samir Shah apologised on behalf of the broadcaster over an “error of judgement” and accepted the editing of the 2024 documentary gave “the impression of a direct call for violent action”.
The fallout from the saga led to the resignation of both the BBC director-general Tim Davie and the head of news Deborah Turness.
Earlier, BBC News reported the broadcaster had set out five main arguments in a letter to Mr Trump’s legal team as to why it did not believe there was a basis for a defamation claim.
In November, the BBC officially apologised to the president, adding that it was an “error of judgement” and saying the programme will “not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms”.
A spokesperson said “the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited,” but they also added that “we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim”.
Four people have been charged with plotting New Year’s Eve bomb attacks in California.
Federal authorities in the US said the four are allegedly part of an extremist group which is suspected of planning the attacks in southern California.
The plot consisted of planting explosive devices at five locations targeting two US companies at midnight on New Year’s Eve in the Los Angeles area.
The suspects were arrested last week in Lucerne Valley, a desert city east of Los Angeles.
Photos of suspects of the terror plot are shown on a screen during a press conference. Pic: AP
They are said to be members of an offshoot of a pro-Palestinian, anti-government and anti-capitalist group dubbed the Turtle Island Liberation Front, the complaint said.
As well as the alleged plan against the two companies, the group also planned to target Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and vehicles, attorney general Pam Bondi said.
The four defendants named in the complaint are Audrey Illeene Carroll, Zachary Aaron Page, Dante Gaffield, and Tina Lai.
All four are from the Los Angeles area, according to first assistant US attorney Bill Essayli.
The alleged plot
According to a sworn statement by the complaint, Carroll showed an eight-page handwritten document to a paid confidential source in November, which described a bomb plot.
The document was titled “Operation Midnight”.
Essayli said one of the suspects created a detailed plan that “included step-by-step instructions to build IEDs (improvised explosive device)… and listed multiple targets across Orange County and Los Angeles.”
FBI assistant director in charge Akil Davis speaks at a press briefing on the incident. Pic: AP
Carroll and Page are then alleged to have recruited the other two defendants to help them carry out the plan which included acquiring bomb-making materials before constructing and performing test detonations.
Under the plan, the defendants would supposedly have travelled to a remote location in the Mojave Desert on the 12 December to construct and detonate their test explosive devices, the sworn statement alleges.
Evidence photos included in the court documents show a desert campsite with what investigators said were bomb-making materials strewn across plastic folding tables.
The FBI said agents intervened before the defendants could complete their work to assemble a functional explosive device.
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The shock of a shooting will cut deeply – but if anywhere can find hope in the face of despair, Providence can
“Most of us live off hope” – the text of a colourful mural, painted on a wall on Hope Street, Providence.
On most days, the neighbourhood around Brown University feels like a place of quiet optimism, swimming against the negative tide.
Hope Street’s mural
The shock of a shooting, that has claimed two lives and left eight others critically wounded, will cut deeply here.
Violence feels not just intrusive but incompatible with the spirit of a place that is governed by thought, not threat.
When the university president said “this is a day we hoped would never come”, she spoke for the whole town.
Two students were killed in the attack
Providence, Rhode Island, is a place I know well. My daughter, her husband and their two little girls live there.
It is a college town with a college vibe, the compact campus priding itself on openness – architecturally, intellectually and emotionally.
They rehearse “shelter-in-place” scenarios, as every university does, but they are not experienced at living behind locked doors.
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‘Stay inside,’ mayor warns as suspect still at large
Rhode Island, the smallest state, has one of the lowest gun-death rates in America, zero mass shooting events in 2024.
Earlier this year, the state banned the sale and manufacture of assault weapons, but it didn’t include those already owned.
Even in a Democratic, liberal state like Rhode Island, they are struggling to find a solution to America’s gun problem.
People hug each other outside Brown University in Providence after the shooting. Pic: Reuters
The age-old constitutional right to bear arms continues to trump the most human of all rights – the right to life.
This is a community that assumes safety, not because it is naïve, but because it has grown accustomed to trust.
College Hill rises in gentle brick and ivy, its narrow streets winding past houses with verandas designed for long conversations.
They take place in hushed tones right now, but if anywhere can find its way out of despair, Providence can.
On the historic street along its east side and in the college on the corner, most people live off hope.
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