Standing more than three metres (10ft) high, the giant moa is the tallest bird known to have walked on Earth. For thousands of years, the wingless herbivore patrolled New Zealand, feasting on trees and shrubs, until the arrival of humans. Today, records of the enormous animal survive only in Māori oral histories, as well as thousands of discoveries of bone, mummified flesh and the odd feather.
But this week, the US start-up Colossal Biosciences has announced that the giant moa has joined the woolly mammoth, dodo and thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, on its list of animals that it is trying to bring back from the dead. The announcement has provoked public excitement – and deep scepticism from many experts about whether it is possible to resurrect the bird, which disappeared a century after the arrival of early Polynesian settlers in New Zealand about 600 years ago.
Note they’re carefully not saying the Maori eated them – possibly mistaking them for Moriori.
But OK, why not? Would be fun. But if we do bring them back then we should also bring back Haast’s eagle. Which died out when there were no more moas for it to predate upon. 40lb of hunting bird on the wing……worth having back, no?
I’m sure there’s plenty of creatures that the Abos hunted and ate that would make good candidates too.
‘Eated’?
I assume “eated” is deliberate, but what’s this baffling new fashion for “predate”, and even worse “predated”?
How would you pronouce them? Some non-words are non-words for good reason.
A predator predates, no?
Illiterates !
A any fue kno it’s ” etten”
A predator preys…
40lb of hunting bird on the wing
Would pose an unacceptable danger to New Zealand’s native Hobbits…
“A predator predates, no?”
No. A predator preys on prey.
“The eagle predated on the moa.” Try saying it out loud
The moa predated the Maori, though. Sorry, I’m not fucking about with wiggly bits above the a.
I want them to bring back Dodos. The available evidence suggests that they were very tasty.
We should be careful.
Bringing back animals from extinction?
With what the elite want, us eating bugs and all, they’ll be bringing back and farming Arthropleura for us to eat.
Or Meganeura
Because what could be a bad idea about having 2ft dragonflies buzzing around…?
… especially as dragonflies are apparently the most successful predators on the planet.. They almost never miss their target prey. Might slim-down the grey-squirrel population though.
Chernyy: we really would have to whack up the CO2 to make it warm enough for 2ft dragonflies. Their nymphs must have been real underwater terrors too.
As for Dodos, the flesh would be far too fishy-oily to my taste.
Tractor G:
But according to the Swedish Goblin, we are really cranking up the CO2.
Maybe that’s why she’s so het up about it. She’s worried about the return of giant insects.
While a 2ft dragonfly isn’t too much to worry about unless you’re a Yorkshire Terrier, the return of 2in ants is a concern. Sure, one can be squished, but imagine getting swarmed by a couple thousand of the little buggers. Not a nice way to go…
Maybe she’s just looking very far ahead and isn’t just on a grift…
‘and deep scepticism from many experts about whether it is possible to resurrect the bird’
Journalist’ bullshit. ‘Experts’ don’t care. Did he really survey experts? Was the question, “Rate your scepticism?”
‘A predator predates, no?’
Only before.
Closer to home, how about the great auk?
I’m afraid the dragonflies won’t…
In the Carboniferous when they existed the CO2 levels were just slightly above current levels, but O2 levels went from 30% to a whopping 35%.
Due to how insects take up oxygen their absolute maximum size is directly related to atmospheric oxygen levels. especially the high energy users like flyers.
Shame, because they must have been beautiful beasts.
But a good thing as well… Imagine how big mozzies, gnats, and midges could get on oxygen levels like that…..
Thanks, Grikath, I was about to post something similar. But I’ve been told that O2 levels are self-regulating, if they rise too far above the current ~20%, wildfires burn out of control, reducing O2 and increasing CO2 (obvs). But land vegetation in the Devonian (when many of our coal measures were laid down) was mainly giant horsetails in swamps, so maybe harder to burn.
Not such a bad thing if you can keep the gnats at bay with chicken wire. It would also give some sport for plinking at them in the garden with the air rifle too!
Isn’t there a sensible limit to how big an insect can be ?
At what point, given 1 bar air pressure and 1G gravity, would an exoskeleton collapse under its own weight ?
I mean films like Them! Are all good fun, but I reckon an ant would struggle with being 30ft long.
Bring back the mammoth, charge rich sportsmen a fortune to hunt them with spears.
Meanwhile, some ghastly mutant hominids are evolving in our inner cities…
Tractor: no, you need to crank up the *oxygen* not the CO2. Insects don’t breath, they absorb oxygen through pores in their body, which only function for a certain depth for a certain oxygen concentration. The insect megafauna got so big because there was more oxygen available to get into deeper bodies to survive.
It’s a well-researched science fiction story about giant insects if it points out “oo look, they’ve developed lungs” as *that* is what allows gigantism in animals.
Edit: As Grikath said.
Please, sir. I want some moa!