Dire wolf back from extinction; some dispute claim

Dire wolf pups
Back from extinction? Two 'dire wolf' pups are at the center of a scientific debate. (Colossal Biosciences/Business Wire)

A bioscience firm says they have resurrected an animal of legend - the extinct dire wolf.

Three genetically engineered wolves were bred by Colossal Biosciences.

They look like the wolves that disappeared more than 10,000 years ago.

The pups, which are three to six months old, have long white hair, muscular jaws and weigh 80 pounds.

The males were born on Oct. 1, while the female was born on Jan. 30. They are named Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi.

All were delivered by a planned cesarean section to minimize risks.

They were developed by studying ancient DNA from two fossils - a 13,000-year-old tooth from Ohio and a 72,000-year-old skull fragment from Idaho.

The team took blood cells from a living gray wolf, genetically modified them at 20 different sites using the fossilized DNA, and then transferred them to an egg cell from a domestic dog. The embryos were then transferred to domestic dogs, and just over three months later, the pups were born.

The company called them the “world’s first successfully de-extincted animal.”

They look like a dire wolf, made popular from “The Game of Thrones” series, but they may not act like it because they won’t be able to learn how to hunt from previous generations of animals.

“What they will probably never learn is the finishing move of how to kill a giant elk or a big deer,” Colossal’s chief animal care expert Matt James said.

But not all scientists agree that the trio are actually dire wolves. Instead, zoologist Philip Seddon called them “genetically modified grey wolves.”

There are genetic differences between the new “dire wolves” and the ones that went extinct several millennia ago.

“So what Colossal has produced is a grey wolf, but it has some dire wolf-like characteristics, like a larger skull and white fur,” Dr. Nic Rawlence said. “It’s a hybrid.”

Dr. Beth Shapiro, a Colossal Biosciences biologist, disputes that notion.

“A grey wolf is the closest living relative of a dire wolf - they’re genetically really similar - so we targeted DNA sequences that lead to dire wolf traits and then edited grey wolf cells... then we cloned those cells and created our dire wolves,” she said.

The pups are living in a 2,000-acre site in an undisclosed location. It is fenced in by a 10-foot-tall “zoo-grade” barrier that is monitored by security, drones, and live camera feeds. It was certified by the American Humane Society and registered with the Department of Agriculture.

“This massive milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works,” Colossal co-founder and CEO, Ben Lamm said. “Our team took DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies.”

Colossal also plans to make other extinct animals like woolly mammoths and dodo birds. It has already cloned four red wolves using blood from the critically endangered red wolf population to help save it from extinction.

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