Colossal Hatches 26 Chicks from Artificial Eggshells

Colossal hopes to eventually scale up the platform to incubate eggs many times larger, with its ultimate target being the South Island giant moa, a flightless New Zealand bird that stood roughly three metres tall and weighed up to 200 kilograms before being hunted to extinction about 600 years ago. Moa eggs are estimated to have been roughly 80 times the volume of a chicken egg, putting them beyond the capacity of any living bird surrogate. The company is pursuing the moa project with the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre in New Zealand and filmmaker Peter Jackson, who is also an investor in the firm. Independent scientists, however, say the announcement was made through a press release with little peer-reviewed data and deserves cautious scrutiny.

Evolutionary biologist Vincent Lynch of the University at Buffalo argues that the device is an artificial eggshell rather than a complete artificial egg, because it still relies on biological components from a real egg to nourish the embryo and remove waste. Dr Louise Johnson of the University of Reading said she would reserve judgement until a peer-reviewed paper appears, while bioethicist Arthur Caplan of New York University asked what environment a revived moa would even inhabit. Colossal next plans to test the system with emu and ostrich eggs, and chief executive Ben Lamm says the company believes a moa could return by the early 2030s and a dodo within four or five years.