The last time Colossal Biosciences claimed to resurrect an extinct species, it backfired so much that chief scientist Dr. Beth Shapiro had to address the criticism, saying it’s impossible to bring back an animal identical to one lost so long ago. Their creation was technically a “grey wolf with 20 edits”. Colossal Biosciences claims to be a de-extinction company. Still, they have yet to find the “mosquito trapped in amber”, but they claim to have developed a key technology to bring back extinct birds— an artificial egg. The claim will send ripples through the scientific community, but is it really a groundbreaking advance or just a marketing gimmick?
An Egg-cellent Replica
Artificial eggs are not a new concept. Researchers across the world have tried to hatch birds from artificial eggs. The breakthrough came in 1998 using quail embryos. Later, artificial plastic cups were introduced to track development, and the embryos were transferred to artificial eggs immediately after they were laid.
Colossal took a different approach by 3D-printing a lattice shell that protects a transparent silicone membrane to prepare the egg. The technology yielded major success, hatching around two dozen chicks. While the research is not yet available as a paper or preprint, scientists unveiled it in a press release on 19th May, along with a video. The work can be a genuine leap forward, and the company hopes to resurrect the extinct South Island giant mia (Dinornis robustus), a 3-meter-tall flightless bird from New Zealand that laid eggs the size of rugby balls.
Yutaka Tahara, a teacher at Oihama High School in Chiba, Japan, worked on the previous version of an artificial egg that used plastic cups and films. He believes that Colossal advanced the technology primarily because of the membrane it developed. The membrane enables the chicks to develop at atmospheric oxygen levels, unlike the artificial eggs he or others have made, which require high levels of supplemental oxygen as hatching approaches.
How did the Artificial Eggs perform?
Colossal’s chief biology officer, Andrew Pask, reveals that their artificial eggs increase the odds of hatching long-term healthy animals, a feat that previous versions couldn’t achieve due to damage to tissues, DNA, and proteins. The company’s egg has a transparent opening that allows researchers to track how gene edits aimed at recreating traits such as the beak shape of extinct birds are expressed in the embryo.
Pask says that the embryos, yolk, and egg white were transferred into artificial eggs 36-40 hours after being laid, and so far, 26 chicks have hatched. The company hasn’t yet measured the proportion of transferred eggs. In a YouTube video, the company claimed that the hatched chicks could live outdoors on a farm once they mature.
De-extinction vs Conservation
Colossal plans to scale up its artificial eggs, testing them with emu and ostrich embryos as a pilot project. Applying the egg system to de-extinction of species such as the moa will require a supply of yolk and egg white, and transferring the yolk and determining whether it contains the species-specific ingredients could be a hurdle.
Nic Rawlence, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Otago, New Zealand, values conservation efforts more than the de-extinction project for the giant moa. The artificial eggs could be especially useful in rescuing the kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus), the heaviest and flightless parrot native to New Zealand. Many of the kākāpō chicks die at birth due to low hatching success. According to Nic Rawlence, “That’s what Colossal should be focusing on rather than bringing in the whole de-extinction angle.”
After Colossal Biosciences made claims about resurrecting dire wolves, US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum shared his thoughts on resurrecting other extinct animals, suggesting that conservation through gene editing could eliminate the need for an endangered species list.
SOUND ON. You’re hearing the first howl of a dire wolf in over 10,000 years. Meet Romulus and Remus—the world’s first de-extinct animals, born on October 1, 2024.
— Colossal Biosciences® (@colossal) April 7, 2025
The dire wolf has been extinct for over 10,000 years. These two wolves were brought back from extinction using… pic.twitter.com/wY4rdOVFRH
The last venture by Colossal Bioscience was a mimicry of a dire wolf, which, ironically, was a completely separate lineage from wolves, making the whole claim scientifically inaccurate. However, the company is still making advancements that could change conservation efforts. As for de-extinction, the ecology has evolved since they went extinct. Reintroducing extinct animals will be a gamble on the balance of an ecosystem and on their potential to become invasive species.
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