"Sequencing the genome" is a bit misleading, it's "sequencing a genome", as the DNA used in the project came from a single individual dodo. Species are not ind

"Sequencing the genome" is a bit misleading, it's "sequencing a genome", as the DNA used in the project came from a single individual dodo. Species are not individuals, they're populations. To get a snapshot of a species you'd need hundreds of genomes sequenced, then you'd look at the statistics of the variation between those genomes. A healthy breeding population can't be clonal, this is pretty well understood from the standpoint of population biology. So you'd want to sequence many genomes, or at least have a means of introducing genetic diversity within the population. That natural population diversity evolved over about 20 million years (wiki), so at least several million generations of dodo ancestors. Without the population diversity, you get the inbreeding problem, e.g. homozygous recessive genes causing all kinds of problems in development, reproduction, etc. Granted island populations are known for limited population diversity but cloning a single genome seems much worse.