🧪🏺 Update - authors have new paper showing how useless gen- #AI is for archaeological illustration. All 400 images were multiply inaccurate (physically, socially, technologically, environmentally), even with improved prompts. JUST USE HUMAN EXPERTS & ARTISTS www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Indigenous Communities Report Dramatic Loss Of Large Bird Species Over 80 Years #SciComm🧪 by @grrlscientist.bsky.social #ExtinctionCrisis #birds🦉 #ornithology🪶 #IndigenousPeoples #CulturalMemory #Ecology #Environment #conservation🌍 www.forbes.com/sites/grrlsc...

🧪🦣🏺 I'm quoted here, and much of what I spoke about with Carl echoes April's comments. Extra thoughts: 1. nice new piece for extending complexity in how we think about #Neanderthal interactions, though as authors note, multiple mechanisms (not just mate choice) possibly active in X chromo patterns

I arrived on the shores of Aotearoa over 12 years ago. Every year there have been cuts to public research and redundancies of public researchers. I cannot overstate how dire this is and how much of our future we are losing. Public research is one way we look after one another. It matters. #NZPOL

Journalists should ask orgs & indiv (incl. in NZ) that signed up w/ @itiscolossal.bsky.social, & community groups that received conservation $ from them, whether they want to be associated w/ Colossal, given George Church's ties to Epstein. Does it reflect positively on you? bsky.app/profile/nicr...

Journalists should ask orgs & indiv (incl. in NZ) that signed up w/ @itiscolossal.bsky.social, & community groups that received conservation $ from them, whether they want to be associated w/ Colossal, given George Church's ties to Epstein. Does it reflect positively on you? bsky.app/profile/nicr...

The extremely dodgy past of Colossal's George Church... forbetterscience.com/2023/06/26/g...

The co-founder of @itiscolossal.bsky.social George Church has been shown to have deep ties with Epstein, more than he let on, and should be ostracised from the palaeontological, ancient DNA, and conservation communities edition.cnn.com/2026/02/19/p... @tetzoo.bsky.social

A recent piece of dark PR AI slop (paid for by whom? 🤔) spent an inordinate number of words desperately trying to paint me as being on the wrong side of history. But as events continue to play out, I am increasingly confident in my collaborative choices and ethical stance…

The co-founder of @itiscolossal.bsky.social George Church has been shown to have deep ties with Epstein, more than he let on, and should be ostracised from the palaeontological, ancient DNA, and conservation communities edition.cnn.com/2026/02/19/p... @tetzoo.bsky.social

This photo, released by the US Department of Justice, purports to show George Church, left, and Martin Nowak on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island

One of the world's biggest funders of palaeontology is Epstein's buddy George Church (he founded the $10 billion USD "de-extinction" company Colossal). Many palaeontologists work for Church on: mammoth, dire wolf, dodo, thylacine, moa, etc.: edition.cnn.com/2026/02/19/p...

Ecologists of Aotearoa- some help please! I'm looking for a DOC commissioned report that shows rats, mice, hedgehogs, rabbits, hares and wasps will increase in abundance under climate change and rats and wasps will both increase their ranges. Any leads? 🐀🐇🦔🐝

NZ must reckon with the grim reality of our future: more storms, floods and heat. This is a confronting situation. And yet, if we are to shield our communities, our infrastructure and our economy from the worst excesses of climate change, it is one we must confront. newsroom.co.nz/2026/02/18/c...

I can't see Indigenous people being happy with the latest @itiscolossal.bsky.social news, especially since samples will be taken offshore & stored in a private company's vault (i.e. not on country). I question whether there's any benefit sharing? www.discovermagazine.com/millions-of-...

Periodic reminder that moa de-extinction could lead to net biodiversity loss due to conservation deprioritisation of extant species. The (re)introduction process of any resultant genetically-modified Emus will very expensive www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Ornithology

Thinking back to the "de-extinction of moas" silliness from Colossal Biosciences yesterday: They aren't using the moa's relative the tinamou because it's "too small and flighted." Instead they wish to use the emu. So how are they going to make a thylacine from a mouse sized dunnart?

Tautoko! The first I or any other Tahu I know heard of this project was when it was in the news. The NTRC does not represent Kāi Tahu Whānui and as far as I know there has been no vote gone out to kā papatipu rūnaka or whānau for this to see if they have a mandate

How to lose friends and support for your cause 101. @itiscolossal.bsky.social CEO Ben Lamm saying "the worst part of conservation is conservationists...". 🤦‍♂️ @forestandbird.bsky.social @birdsnewzealand.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The AI imagery here is horrendous. It was the same in Paul Scofield's talks at CAVEPS. Given the push in palaeo to not use AI images bc of the wealth of great palaeo artists who should be paid, you would have thought Colossal and co could stump up $$$ bsky.app/profile/adze...

I can guarantee Ngai Tahu are not fully on board. @itiscolossal.bsky.social, Canterbury Museum & Paul Scofield cherry-picked who they engaged with (just like Colossal did for the thylacine de-extinction project). There is little support for moa de-extinction in Ngai Tahu bsky.app/profile/adze...

I thought scientists busted the myth that deer and moa were ecological surrogates of each other years ago 🤣https://bsky.app/profile/adzebill.bsky.social/post/3mezhncp4kk2t @itiscolossal.bsky.social 1/2

I'll just leave this here theconversation.com/despite-the-... 2/2

Is that with interest @adzebill.bsky.social 😜?https://bsky.app/profile/adzebill.bsky.social/post/3mezhvzios22t

Check out the slides further in the thread. AI slop through out. Everyday I find I cannot take Colossal Biosciences seriously. Can't make a moa from a tinamou (it's actual relative) so they'll tweak an emu. Im betting this will just result in a taller, gray emu that eats and acts like an emu.

🫠 I wish I could get a tiny fraction of the cash these folks have been given to absolutely fuck up a perfectly good emu. I would even use it to pay some real human artists.

People with a decent genetics or zoology background will say this isn’t going to "bring back" Moa. At best they’ll end up with a variant of their model bird, with a few "Moa-ish" features. I hope investors understand that well. Not impressed with the AI slop illustrations either. 🧵⬇️

How to lose friends and support for your cause 101. @itiscolossal.bsky.social CEO Ben Lamm saying "the worst part of conservation is conservationists...". 🤦‍♂️ @forestandbird.bsky.social @birdsnewzealand.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Some context on Ngai Tahu’s involvement ⬇️ - thanks Nic bsky.app/profile/nicr...

The AI imagery here is horrendous. It was the same in Paul Scofield's talks at CAVEPS. Given the push in palaeo to not use AI images bc of the wealth of great palaeo artists who should be paid, you would have thought Colossal and co could stump up $$$ bsky.app/profile/adze...

I thought scientists busted the myth that deer and moa were ecological surrogates of each other years ago 🤣https://bsky.app/profile/adzebill.bsky.social/post/3mezhncp4kk2t @itiscolossal.bsky.social 1/2

I can guarantee Ngai Tahu are not fully on board. @itiscolossal.bsky.social, Canterbury Museum & Paul Scofield cherry-picked who they engaged with (just like Colossal did for the thylacine de-extinction project). There is little support for moa de-extinction in Ngai Tahu bsky.app/profile/adze...

Is that with interest @adzebill.bsky.social 😜?https://bsky.app/profile/adzebill.bsky.social/post/3mezhvzios22t

Director of Otago University’s Palaeogenetics Laboratory Associate Professor @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social Debunks the whole thing in this recorded talk.

JFC I sincerely hope that this nonsense is not presented at the Society for Avian Paleontology and Evolution in Christchurch this October. Then again I haven’t attended a scientific meeting that degenerated into people yelling at one another in nearly 15 years.

As someone with a bit of experience in this area, I would argue we still have a very poor understanding of exactly what the ecological functions of moa were. Moreover, SI giant moa seems like the most complex case to start with, as with size differences the sexes could have had different ‘functions’

I said "Paul, I bet you $1000 there will be no 'functionally-equivalent' moa running around in ten years." We shook on it, witnessed by the Friends of the Museum audience. The talk will be on YouTube but not the questions, so you'll have to take my word that this happened.

Since Colossal have yet to add a single gene to a single emu, let alone the thousands that would be needed to turn those omnivores into huge herbivores with radically different physiologies and beaks for cropping and processing NZ plants like moa did, I called bullshit on the 10 year deadline.

Apparently faux-moa will be browsing generalists and help restore NZ's impenetrable bush back to what it was 800 years ago. (Paul admitted moa were not actually deer though.) But they'll also be in captivity, so go figure.

His mate Peter Jackson wants a giant moa but they have to start small. Apparently Ngāi Tahu are "really on board" with Jurassic-Park-style biotech ecotourism (some GM emus in an enclosure), think of the jobs, it'll be like Hobbiton.

Paul maintains the goal is a "functional de-extinction", something "to all intents and pursposes" is a moa, walks like a moa, quacks like a moa etc. And there'll be one in ten years. Made from genetically-modified emu, because tinamou are too small.

Colossal have apparently "made considerable progress" with mammoth revival. (Hybrid embryos were "a couple of years away" in 2017; the target date is now 2028, but elephants gestate for 18–22 months so they'd better hurry. They've made some hairy mice though.) www.theguardian.com/science/2017...

Today I heard Paul Scofield, Senior Curator of Natural History at Canterbury Museum, give a public talk on moa resurrection and the museumʻs partnership with Colossal Biosciences (the “dire wolf” people).

I've decided to revise and update one of my most important and popular blogposts "How do I become a paleontologist?". I still get asked this every few weeks so having a new version of this post to share is so useful to put people on track. archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2026/02/17/h...