GoKawiilWhether blue as a robin’s egg, or speckled like a Carolina wren’s, the humble eggshell is a masterpiece of natural design. For years, scientists studying evolution and developmental biology have tried various methods to recreate the eggshell, or to hatch birds without eggshells entirely, each scheme with key limitations. Now the private company Colossal Biosciences claims to have mastered a synthetic shell design—which they say is a key step toward their goal of resurrecting extinct species like New Zealand’s giant moa and Mauritius’s dodo.
On May 19, the Texas-based “de-extinction” company announced the birth of 26 healthy chickens using what it calls the “Colossal artificial egg” system. “We’re not just trying to recreate the egg … We’re really trying to reengineer it for our purposes,” says Colossal CEO and Co-founder Ben Lamm.
Beyond chickens, Colossal says this technology could be scaled up to eventually hatch the extinct species in bigger eggs. This isn’t the first time Colossal, which has fundraised over $600 million and is valued at more than $10 billion, has made headlines. Last year, it announced the birth of three white pups genetically engineered to resemble extinct dire wolves.