Colossal Foundation working to bring extinct species back to life
Ambitious plans to bring the woolly mammoth and other species back from extinction are now feasible thanks to impressive technological advances, a scientist spearheading the pioneering project has said.
Scientists at Texas-based biotech start-up Colossal Biosciences are making steady progress in their efforts to resurrect the prehistoric proboscideans, as well as the Tasmanian tiger (also known as the thylacine) and the dodo using cutting-edge gene-editing technology.
And Beth Shapiro, the company’s Chief Science Officer, believes a stated time frame of four years is not unrealistic when it comes to the shaggier cousins of extant elephants.
The last mammoths, living on the Wrangel Island off the coast of Siberia, died out roughly 4,000 years ago. But for hundreds of thousands of years – and throughout the last ice age – numerous species ranged across the globe, from the steppes of Central Asia to North America.
Ms Shapiro told Express.co.uk: “The technologies definitely exist. The idea is that we have to tweak all of these technologies to make them useful for non-model organisms.
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Beth Shapiro says the ‘technologies exist’ to bring back the woolly mammoth (Image: GETTY/Colossal Foundation)
“We can start with an Asian elephant, which is the closest living relative of a mammoth. It’s already 99.999 percent mammoth and we just need to try to figure out what other bits we need to alter in order to make that Asian elephant more mammoth-like.
“There are many genetic differences between Asian elephants and mammoths, but not all of them will be necessary to resurrect those core phenotypes.
“And so when Colossal talks about de-extinction, we are talking about taking a species that’s alive today and using that at the foundation on which to resurrect these core phenotypes that allow a species to look and act the way they once did.”
Describing the animal she and others at Colossal are envisaging, Ms Shapiro added: “All the traits that we’re focusing on are to allow the tropically adapted Asian elephant to be able to live in cooler climates.
Asian elephants are actually more closely related to mammoths than they are to African elephants (Image: Getty)
“Not necessarily an Arctic climate – mammoths lived in temperate as well as Arctic climates. But it’s about longer, thicker hair, thicker layers of subcutaneous fat and we’re also focusing on things like the shape of the tusks and the shape of the neck and the head.”
Ms Shapiro was also keen to stress the potential environmental benefits of reintroducing mammoths – and has already earmarked a possible location.
She explained: “There’s a place in northeastern Siberia called Pleistocene Park that is the brainchild and life’s work of Russian Academy of Science biologists Sergei Zimov and his son, Nikita, and they have introduced all sorts of large animals that used to be there – bison and horses and deer, etc.
“And they’ve seen that by having those animals on the landscape, there’s a redistribution of nutrients and seeds that doesn’t happen with them absent, and this helps the plant ecosystem to be able to come back.”
Nor is it just mammoths. Speaking on Wednesday, when the company announced the launch of the Colossal Foundation using an initial £38 million ($50 million) in secured funding, chief executive Ben Lamm said it is “highly likely” that the thylacine and the dodo could be resurrected before 2028.
‘Last known’ Tasmanian tigers at Hobart Zoo in 1933
Ms Shapiro said: “The thylacine was a top predator in these Australian habitats and communities which went extinct 100 years ago, so there is no top predator in that landscape now.
“The Yellowstone wolf reintroduction project is putting the wolves back into that ecosystem. That top predator returning to that ecosystem had fundamental changes that cascaded throughout that community.
“And so these top carnivores play a really crucial role.”
Addressing ethical considerations, she continued: “People have been manipulating the species around us for as long as we’ve existed.
Colossal Biosciences chief executive Ben Lamm (Image: Colossal Foundation)
“We took grey wolves and turned them into Chihuahuas and Great Danes.
“And of course, as we make progress, these are discoveries that have immediate applications for the preservation of existing species. For me, it’s not just about bringing extinct species back to life, but it’s also about developing tools that we can apply explicitly to conservation.
“The foundation is working on species that are of conservation concern today, and really trying to apply these technologies that we need for de-extinction to preventing extinction.
“If we want a future that is both biodiverse and filled with people then we need to give ourselves the space to explore what these sorts of new technologies that are at our fingertips can do.”
Colossal Foundation is involved in work to protect the critically endangered northern white rhino (Image: Getty)
As for the classification of the theoretical new species, which would technically be a modified Indian elephant, Ms Shapiro adopts a flexible attitude.
She said: “This is a personal opinion, but if it looks like a mammoth and it’s acting like a mammoth, and it’s living like a mammoth, and then it’s a mammoth.”
To date, Colossal Biosciences, which is valued at £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) has raised £177 million ($235 million), with celebrity backers such as Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, American socialite Paris Hilton, and motivational speaker Tony Robbins.
The non-profit arm of the company will focus on conservation efforts for at-risk species, including the critically endangered vaquita porpoise, the northern white rhino, and the pink pigeon, a rare bird found in Mauritius.
