Colossal claims shell-less artificial eggs hatched healthy chicks
The company frames the system as a step toward hatching giant birds like the South Island moa and says it could extend to broader wildlife conservation.
By Ryan Merket · · updated
Why it matters
If viable at larger scales, a controllable, shell-less incubation system could remove a key bottleneck in avian conservation and de-extinction work by decoupling hatch success from egg size and surrogate availability.
Colossal Biosciences said its scientists have hatched healthy chicks from artificial eggs with no shells and no hens, unveiling the work in a 21-post thread on X. The company described the lab-built vessels as bioengineered eggs that "breathe like the real thing" and positioned the approach as a tool for handling eggs far larger than a chicken's.
https://x.com/colossal/status/2056708864096018584
In replies within the thread, Colossal Biosciences (@colossal) said the immediate goal is to enable hatching for the South Island giant moa, noting its eggs were roughly 80x the volume of a chicken's. The account added that while the focus is wildlife, the platform could have broader conservation applications and "could be useful for the dodo." The company also confirmed the demonstrated hatchlings were chickens.
Colossal pointed readers to a short explainer video on YouTube for more technical detail and context on the system's airflow and incubation control, linking to a deeper eggsplanation. It also highlighted its nonprofit work via the Colossal Foundation.
The company called the result a major milestone on its path toward de-extincting the moa, but did not share experimental protocols or timelines in the X thread. RuntimeWire has not independently verified the methods described.