Chicks hatched from artificial eggs in scientific first — it could a game-changer for bringing extinct animals back to life

NY Post ^ | 05/19/2026 | Ben Cost

[DFG]

Could this bring species back from egg-stinction?

Texas firm Colossal Biosciences, which has dedicated itself to resurrecting lost species, including the dire wolf and woolly mammoth, has hatched live chicks from an artificial egg for the first time — a crucial, “Jurassic Park”-esque step in its mission to bring back the moa and other giant, long-gone avians.

The first-of-its-kind artificial egg allows a bird embryo to develop completely outside of a biological shell while scientists oversee every aspect from early embryo to hatching.

The team hatched 26 “healthy” chickens, which “will live out their natural lives” at the company’s avian facility, CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm told The Post.

But the company says the implications go far beyond hatching domestic fowl.

Colossal believes that the tech could help save endangered birds with low hatch rates while also paving the way for resurrecting extinct avians such as the dodo and the moa — a large, flightless bird that was hunted to extinction in New Zealand by Māori settlers around 600 years ago

“We didn’t just copy nature,” Lamm declared to The Post. “We tried to re-engineer it.”

Unlike the company’s mammoth and dire wolf projects — which relied on mammal surrogates such as elephants and domestic dogs — giant avians pose a different challenge: There are no modern birds capable of incubating a moa egg.

Standing at up to 13 feet tall and weighing as much as 500 pounds, the avian’s egg was around eight times larger than that of an emu.

Colossal 3D printed a biologically accurate replica egg from titanium, a faux embryo comprised of a lattice shell lined with a bio-engineered silicone membrane that mimics how real eggs transfer oxygen. The porous liner, the company said, actually exceeds the oxygen transfer capacity of a normal chicken egg.

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TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: aldoushuxley; artificialegg; bravenewworld; chicken; colossal; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; lamm; moa; thereaintnobodyhere

[dfwgator]

[Tell It Right]

Money for nothing. Chicks egg-free.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I have a bad feeling about this.

[Nateman]

Many years ago when I use to read ‘The species is gone forever’ I doubted it . I knew , even then , it was simply a matter of getting the right information or not .

[dfwgator]

“Go! Chicken Heart! Go!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3UJr5n6lfk

[algore]

[BenLurkin]

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Good one.

[BipolarBob]

I want an velociraptor for my emotional support animal. He would do double duty as a security defense measure.

[Leaning Right]

> its mission to bring back the moa and other giant, long-gone avians <

Oh, great. Now I’ve got to add “huge marauding birds” to my fear list.
And if they can fly, that would be even worse.

[Resolute Conservative]

We never learn.

[lee martell]

Oh, we’re talking ‘Tweet-Tweet’ Chicks,
not ‘She’s a Brick....Haus!’ kinda Chick.

[Red Badger]

Egg-Citing development!..................

[Red Badger]

😁....................

[Red Badger]

Lets bring back those giant flightless meat eating birds that used to roam the pampas in Argentina a few million years ago. That would be fun!..............

[Red Badger]

Today it’s chickens.
Tomorrow it’s humans.
Shades of Brave New World!.................

[Jamestown1630]

What good use is there for extinct animals, especially when you figure in the cost and effort?

[unread]

It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature..!

[dfwgator]