Thomas and Ollie, both 15, turn to a classic 1990s sci-fi film as a point of reference when the topic of “de-extinction” is raised.<\/p>\n
“It just depends on the animal and what it can do to society, like a dinosaur \u2014 that would just not be a good thing,” Thomas says.<\/p>\n
“[So] not the plot of Jurassic Park.”<\/p>\n
“I think the plot of Jurassic Park would be cool,” Ollie says.<\/p>\n
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Jurassic Park is a reference point for Ollie, 15, Thomas, 15, and Gabriel, 16. (BTN High: Michelle Wakim)<\/p>\n
Marvee, 14, thinks “some things would go wrong”.<\/p>\n
“I’ve watched Jurassic Park,” she says.<\/p>\n
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Nic Rawlence excavating moa bones at Awamoa, New Zealand. (Supplied: Otago Daily Times)<\/p>\n
The film is also a conversation starter for academics such as Nic Rawlence from the University of Otago’s palaeogenetics laboratory.<\/p>\n
“It’s like that quote out of Jurassic Park from Malcolm \u2026 ‘We were so busy thinking about whether we could, that we didn’t stop to think about whether we should,'” he says.<\/p>\n
But discussions about bringing extinct animals back to life are no longer limited to the genre of science fiction.<\/p>\n
Hollywood heavyweight invests millions<\/p>\n
American biotech company Colossal Biosciences has recently announced plans to bring back a flightless bird from New Zealand that could grow as tall as 3.6 metres.<\/p>\n
The moa became extinct about 500 years ago due to hunting, habitat destruction and introduced predators.<\/p>\n
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An artist’s impression of a pair of giant New Zealand moa being attacked by a raptor. (Supplied: John Megahan\/PLoS Biology)<\/p>\n
The company has also been working to resurrect the woolly mammoth and the Tasmanian tiger<\/a>.<\/p>\n In October last year Colossal Biosciences announced the birth of what it said were the first dire wolves to be born in more than 10,000 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n Peter Jackson (left) holds a moa bone with Colossal Biosciences chief executive Ben Lamm. (AP)<\/p>\n The moa project has generated excitement among followers, including director Peter Jackson, who has invested about $23 million into the project.<\/p>\n “It has given me more enjoyment and satisfaction than any films ever have,” he says.<\/p>\n “It’s uniquely a New Zealand bird, so it’s something that we’ve always been very fascinated with.”<\/p>\n Loading…Can you really clone an extinct animal?<\/p>\n But what does it mean to “de-extinct” a species?<\/p>\n “The process of de-extinction is that we extract DNA from ancient bones and we sequence that DNA and assemble ancient genomes,” Colossal Biosciences chief science officer Beth Shapiro says.<\/p>\n “To de-extinct the moa we are collecting DNA from all nine species of moa.<\/p>\n “We’ll be comparing the genome sequences to genomes of living birds to identify what it is that made moa unique,and using the tools of genome editing to make those changes in the DNA sequence of the living, close relatives.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n