Will scientists de-extinct the dodo? Experts claim they are now one step closer to bringing back flightless bird

Scientists claim they are one step closer to bringing the dodo back from extinction, after editing the genes of chickens that could lay eggs carrying the long-dead bird.

Researchers at Colossal Biosciences in Texas have successfully made chickens capable of carrying eggs filled with reconstructed dodo DNA.

They did this by removing what are known as primordial germ cells, a type of stem cell that develop into either sperm or eggs.

The team also created primordial germ cells from Nicobar pigeons, the dodo's closet genetic relative. Scientists at the American institute are planning on editing these pigeon cells with dodo DNA, before transferring them to the chickens and allowing them to lay eggs that should, in theory, allow for the once-extinct bird to live once more.

Ben Lamm, Colossal’s chief executive, described the development as 'a significant advancement for dodo de-extinction'.

Dodos were hunted into extinction in the 17th century. It gets its name from the Portuguese word for 'fool', after colonialists mocked its apparent lack of fear of human hunters. 

It also became prey for cats, dogs and pigs that had been brought with sailors exploring the Indian Ocean.

Because the species lived in isolation on Mauritius for hundreds of years, the bird was fearless, and its inability to fly made it easy prey.

Its last confirmed sighting was in 1662 after Dutch sailors first spotted the species just 64 years earlier in 1598.

Most people believe that the dodo was a fat, ungainly bird, but as it has been extinct since the late 1600s, nobody really knows exactly what the dodo looked like.

Oxford University Museum of Natural History is home to the only surviving remains of dodo soft tissue that exists anywhere in the world. 

Scientists said the 'Oxford dodo' was blasted in the back of the head with a shotgun. 

There's also a dodo skull in the University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum, and an upper jaw in the National Museum, Prague.