Could the long-extinct bush moa be brought back from the dead?

Because they’re, well, dead, it’s hard to find out much about the lives of extinct creatures like the little bush moa, a turkey-sized, emu-like turkey that lived until the 13th century.^th Century. But with the 21st^st Using the ability to examine ancient DNA created in the 20th century, a new study has provided more clues about the bush moa’s lifestyle than we know from fossils alone.

“We have very little information about extinct species other than what their bones looked like and, in some cases, what they ate,” said Scott V. Edwards, lead study author and professor of organismal and evolutionary biology at Harvard University, in a statement. “DNA provides a really exciting window into the natural history of extinct species like the small bush moa.”

And so Edwards and a team of fellow researchers set out to create a genome sequence – the entire DNA of an organism – for the bush moa.

They used a method similar to that used to sequence the genome of other extinct animals, such as the woolly mammoth. DNA was extracted from a single toe bone of a bush moa and sequenced in short snippets.

The next step was to piece the pieces together in the right places. This was made a little easier by using the emu genome as a guide; not only is the emu related to the bush moa, but it also has a particularly well-characterized genome.

It should be noted that the resulting genetic map is a draft, meaning it may well contain inaccuracies or be missing parts that researchers are unaware of. Nonetheless, it does point to some interesting features of what the bush moa’s sensory perception may have looked like.

Genetic evidence suggests that, like many birds, they had four types of cone photoreceptors – proteins in the retina that are light-sensitive and convert light into an electrical signal. The special receptors present mean that they could see both colors and ultraviolet, despite their relatively small eyes.

And if you’ve ever wondered whether extinct birds liked kimchi, the answer might be yes: The genome sequence suggests that bush moas had the full set of taste receptors, meaning they were able to detect umami.

It is hoped that further research into the genome could also shed light on the evolution of flightless birds, because the bones found in birds with wings are completely absent in moas.

The bush moa, like the other eight moa species, is thought to have become extinct around 800 years ago when Polynesian settlers arrived in New Zealand. However, some claim that the giant moa was still around in the early 1990s.

Could we bring the bush moa back from the grave with a genome sequence? Attempts are being made with other extinct birds.

But that is not the purpose of the current research, explained Edwards. “For me, this work is primarily about shedding light on the natural history of this amazing species,” the researcher concluded.

The study was published in Science Advances.