To revive an extinct bird, you first need an artificial egg

"“This is a chicken embryo,” says Snyder, a bioengineer at Colossal Biosciences in Dallas, as he gently places the device cradling the chicken embryo into a stand that makes it glow. “You can see the little chicken embryos moving around in there,” Snyder says. “You can see it has eyes. It has a heartbeat. It has a beak. It has feathers. It has an eyelid. You can see the wings are developing. Legs. It even is beginning to get little claws on its feet.”"

"Snyder and his colleagues developed this 3D-printed plastic egg to advance one of Colossal's big goals: resurrecting the dodo and another extinct flightless bird called the giant moa, which looked like a giant ostrich when it roamed New Zealand hundreds of years ago. The eggs of the dodo, which lived on an Indian Ocean island before disappearing, were slightly larger than typical chicken eggs, and those of the dodo's closest living relative, the Nicobar pigeon, Snyder says. The moa's eggs were about the size of a football, which is far larger than the eggs of the moa's closest living relatives, such as the emu."

"“There's no bird on Earth today that could grow a moa embryo inside of one of their eggs,” Snyder tells NPR during a recent tour of the company's lab. “So we have to come up with artificial eggs to be able to support those embryos. But to understand all the things that the egg needs to do, we're starting with chicken eggs.”"

"On Tuesday, Colossal announced that it had hatched healthy chicken chicks that were incubated in the company's artificial eggs, providing a proof of concept that they work. “This is the coolest thing I've ever worked on,” Snyder says. Colossal claims it has already brought the dire wolf back from extinction and hopes to resurrect other species, includin"

A bioengineer demonstrates a 3D-printed artificial egg that holds a chicken embryo in a glowing incubator. The transparent top allows observation of embryo development, including eyes, heartbeat, beak, feathers, eyelid, wings, legs, and early claws. The artificial egg system was developed to support embryos of extinct flightless birds, including the dodo and the giant moa. Dodo eggs are slightly larger than typical chicken eggs, while moa eggs are much larger than eggs of their closest living relatives. Because no living bird can grow a moa embryo in its own egg, artificial eggs are required. Colossal reported hatching healthy chicken chicks incubated in these artificial eggs, demonstrating the approach works.

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