Americans are trying to figure out if they can bring back a bird that went extinct hundreds of years ago
Using ancient DNA extracted from a museum specimen's finger bone, Harvard biologists have deciphered the genome of the extinct flightless bird moa. shedding light on an unknown corner of the genetic history of birds.
Researchers from Harvard University in the US have obtained DNA from an extinct moa. The work provides the first complete genetic map of the turkey-sized bird, which is distantly related to the ostrich, emu and kiwi. It is one of nine known species of moa that have gone extinct in the last 700 years and inhabited New Zealand until the late 1200s and the arrival of the first people on the island.
Previous studies have provided new genetic evidence for various aspects of the moa's sensory system. Like many birds, they had four types of cone photoreceptors in their retinas, which provided them with not only color vision, but also ultraviolet vision. They had a full range of taste buds. The most remarkable feature of these flightless birds is the complete absence of the skeletal elements of the forelimbs that usually make up the birds' wings. Studying the moa's genome may provide new clues about how and why some birds evolved to become flightless.
Scientists hope that using the bird's DNA they can learn more about it and other extinct birds animals. Perhaps they will even be able to revive this bird species with the help of modern technology.
“There is no guarantee that a reintroduced species will survive in the environment it was previously inhabited. A lot has changed in 700 years. The world is no longer the same,” says paleontologist Anette Hegström. She adds that the fact that there are more people is one of the reasons why things have changed on Earth.
If scientists succeed in recreating animals, they will have to figure out how the species will survive again, because they have already gone extinct once. This can be difficult because scientists don't always know why an animal went extinct. The situation is simpler with animals that are believed to have become extinct because of humans, for example, because humans hunted them too much.
“The knowledge we have gained from studying the genes of extinct animals, we may , can be used to research how to preserve animals that are actually alive today,” explains the paleontologist.
The fact is that when an animal disappears from nature, the flora and fauna change, and it is not always easy to understand what has changed. According to scientists, it's like playing dominoes: if you push one piece, the others may fall too.
There are more than 1.5 million species of animals in the world, and more than 1 million of them are insects. Experts believe that in total there may be up to 8 million different species of fauna. This means there are millions of animals, fish and insects that have yet to be discovered.
“When we talk about animal reintroduction, we are talking about large animals. At the same time, there are many endangered animals that we don’t know about,” explains Hegström.
Earlier in 2024, a company was announced that wants to revive mammoths, which will be placed in the Siberian tundra. Scientists will put them there to help nature and the climate. Many mammoths lived here, but they became extinct about 4 thousand years ago.
It is noted that scientists will never be able to obtain a mammoth as it actually was when it lived on Earth, because researchers can use genetic elephant material.