If you are in Balclutha tomorrow night, I'll be giving a public talk with @forestandbird.bsky.social on MythBusting de-extinction to sort fact from fiction at 7pm. See you there.

Are you researching the conservation, ecology or taxonomy of soil & litter invertebrates? Submit your paper to this Special Issue of NZ Journal of Zoology, edited by me, @carlosbarreto.bsky.social & @barnesecodiv.bsky.social! More info: www.royalsociety.org.nz/news/nzjz-so... #SoilBiodiversity 🧪

Oh so I see after a month of posting nothing but petulant memes and being roundly ignored, the Colossal account on here is now actually posting about research... to their 33 followers.

Extinction is forever. These animals would be as much of a "real dodo" as the generative AI they used in their press release. I worry about the ethics of de-extinction & misinformation surrounding it. As one who loves pigeons (Columbidae), I also worry about the little genetically-modified squabs 🧪

It's as if Colossal thinks if they tell this lie often enough they hope the public will buy it and believe them. Just because it might look like a dodo, does not mean it's a dodo or will even function like one.

10-million-year-old dolphin-like fossil found in Peru https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/c7v1rygml6eo 🐬 #cetaceans #marinemammals #marinelife #marinebiology #porpoise #fossilfriday

How did the ostrich cross the ocean? This fossil holds clues! This is the holotype of Lithornis promiscuus at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. This heron-sized bird lived in a swampy floodplain in Paleocene Wyoming. #FossilFriday thread (1/4)

Large penguin from the Tangahoe Formation (Pliocene of New Zealand), a member of the same genus as extant king and emperor penguins: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... 🧪🪶 (📷 @atennyson.bsky.social et al.)

Interesting that the Colossal guy’s tone has started to take on distinct shade of aggrieved swagger. (You know the sort: the “🤣” emoji.) It does not convince me that he doesn’t care!

new zealand government reaching new heights of stupidity next year our public dollars will go more to AI grants ($70 million) than all investigator-initiated basic science combined ($56 million in the Marsden fund)

There's a great Substack piece by Adam Rutherford debunking all this nonsense. arutherford.substack.com/p/dire-wolve...

It seems like it’s dangerous for scientists to speak out against Colossal’s “de extinction research”. www.newscientist.com/article/2490...

“Rich Grenyer, a biologist at the University of Oxford, said de-extinction is a “dangerous” distraction and that gene-edited animals are “at best a sort of simulation, rather like those unnerving animated AI portraits of dead relatives some… people create”.” www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

To explain briefly, PGCs can be used to give rise to sperm or ova cells In avian biology, PGCs can be genetically modified, then injected into embryonic chickens, and they mature in the host (usually a male) and produce mature gametes (usually sperm), but there still then needs to be a host hen

[sigh] here we go again Once again, Colossal Biosciences is tech bro grift and journalists don’t need to reprint their press releases uncritically (and they only claim they’ve made Nicobar pigeon germ cells!) They will not ever produce a live dodo www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

"my numbers"

Fair warning, I guess, for all current and future Colossal collaborators. They don’t care. I am honestly so, so disappointed in this, and other similar comments. I hoped for better.

SMH

The scientists who are on Colossal's SAB really, *really* need to re-think what they are doing there and whether they want their names associated with this project.

It seems Lamm’s bottom line is "his numbers" 💰💰 (see sidebar quote of the last 2 paragraphs of The Guardian article), but he’s also disingenuous in making out objections to be about "not _liking_" their "Dodos" (or "Moa", etc). The objections are to misrepresenting the science. 1/4 🧵⬇️

The absolute garbage from Colossal continues, this time it's Dodos. I won't link to the article, because Ben Lamm their CEO is quite open about their intentions. Instead read my sweary takedown of the dire Wolf claims from earlier in the year. arutherford.substack.com/p/dire-wolve...

Colossal Biosciences has announced that they have created a colony of rock dove primordial germ cells, which can turn into sperm & eggs. Their aim is to genetically modify the genome of a Nicobar pigeon, the closest living relative of the extinct dodo. www.theguardian.com/science/2025... 1/11

I was giving a talk last night about MythBusting de-extinction & I was asked if there was any chance of Colossal having an adult conversation & listening to their critics www.theguardian.com/science/2025... 1/2

I was giving a talk last night about MythBusting de-extinction & I was asked if there was any chance of Colossal having an adult conversation & listening to their critics www.theguardian.com/science/2025... 1/2

The word "could" is carrying a *lot* of weight here #ExtinctionIsForever whatever #ColossalBios PR department would have you believe...

Reposting for all the obvious reasons: we live in a zero-sum media landscape, drawing attention to this "pivotal step" in the #deëxtinction of the dodo takes attention away from other infinitely more important things. #ColossalBio is just making deepfake GMO pigeons, not dodos 🦤 🧪

Colossal Biosciences has announced that they have created a colony of rock dove primordial germ cells, which can turn into sperm & eggs. Their aim is to genetically modify the genome of a Nicobar pigeon, the closest living relative of the extinct dodo. www.theguardian.com/science/2025... 1/11

If you are in Balclutha next Friday 26th September I'll be giving a public talk with @forestandbird.bsky.social on MythBusting de-extinction to sort fact from fiction at 7pm. See you there - @naturevision.bsky.social

If you are in Balclutha next Friday 26th September I'll be giving a public talk with @forestandbird.bsky.social on MythBusting de-extinction to sort fact from fiction at 7pm. See you there - @naturevision.bsky.social

Tēnā rawa atu koe Otago Daily Times for continuing to shine a light on the smear campaign for speaking out about Colossal's de-extinction plans. Small correction: "sequencing Māori genomes" should read "sequencing moa genomes". The ODT used this incorrect quote from a previous article they wrote.

Tonight at 7pm NZ time I'll be talking to the NZ Geological Society on MythBusting de-extinction to sort fact from fiction. You can register to see my talk using this link gsnz.org.nz/gsnz-events/....

Tēnā rawa atu koe Otago Daily Times for continuing to shine a light on the smear campaign for speaking out about Colossal's de-extinction plans. Small correction: "sequencing Māori genomes" should read "sequencing moa genomes". The ODT used this incorrect quote from a previous article they wrote.

Tonight at 7pm NZ time I'll be talking to the NZ Geological Society on MythBusting de-extinction to sort fact from fiction. You can register to see my talk using this link gsnz.org.nz/gsnz-events/....

A new study warns that Macaronesia has suffered heavy biodiversity losses, revealing each extinct species including 27 birds:

Next week on Wednesday 17th September at 7pm NZ time I'll be talking to the NZ Geological Society on MythBusting de-extinction to sort fact from fiction. You can register to see my talk using the link below.

Next week on Wednesday 17th September at 7pm NZ time I'll be talking to the NZ Geological Society on MythBusting de-extinction to sort fact from fiction. You can register to see my talk using the link below.

‘Incredible’ fossil reveals earliest relative of lizards and their kin | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Yes. Money is being spent on snails. These are unique, remarkable and of huge scientific importance. If we hadn’t destroyed their environment we wouldn’t have to spend the money. And yes Genomics Aotearoa is doing genetic analyses to support effective management. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

🦣🍖🧬 Fully funded 3-yr PhD in palaeogenomics & bioinformatics! Help me push non-model palaeogenomes beyond their limits @DTU in Denmark. Start: Feb 2026 (flexible) Application deadline: 24 Oct 2025 For details click here: tinyurl.com/BioExtPhD Reposts appreciated 😁

Nice to see my opinion piece on moa 'de-extinction' published in the latest issue of the @birdsnewzealand.bsky.social magazine. Thanks to those who helped give this article wings...you know who you are.

Nice to see my opinion piece on moa 'de-extinction' published in the latest issue of the @birdsnewzealand.bsky.social magazine. Thanks to those who helped give this article wings...you know who you are.

More cuts to the Marsden Fund of @royalsocietynz.bsky.social. This takes it down to $10/capita in real terms when it was over $16 for most of this century. Australia's equivalent, the ARC, is NZ$42/capita, as is the US NSF (despite ongoing attempts to gut the latter). www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

More cuts to the Marsden Fund. This time $20 million from the annual budget cut starting next year. This is on top of previous cuts by this government. They are trying to skip the 'priming the pump' step of public research as a driver of the economy. How well that is going to work? #NZPOL

Context: this knocks back Marsden funding levels next year a whole two decades to (inflation adjusted) the same level funding as the 2005 Budget.

Applied research is digging for gold, basic research is figuring out where to dig. Marsden used to fund it all. Each grant is rigorously assessed in 2 rounds by a panel of local & international experts. It is risky research, with potentially high rewards.

Another devastating and horribly short-sighted cut for research funding in Aotearoa.

I'm up to hit piece #4 since criticising de-extinction (ventsmagazine.com/2025/09/05/s...). Someone doesn't like being called out in Science. The "creator" of this AI-generated piece clearly didn't read my piece w/ Indigenous Māori genomics researcher Phil Wilcox theconversation.com/return-of-th...

I'm up to hit piece #4 since criticising de-extinction (ventsmagazine.com/2025/09/05/s...). Someone doesn't like being called out in Science. The "creator" of this AI-generated piece clearly didn't read my piece w/ Indigenous Māori genomics researcher Phil Wilcox theconversation.com/return-of-th...