The US biotechnology firm Colossal Biosciences has announced that it has successfully produced three dire wolves, a species that has been extinct for more than 10,000 years, by manipulating the genome of a contemporary gray wolf utilizing dire wolf DNA sourced from fossils.
Yesterday, Colossal unveiled footage that purportedly showcased “dire wolf” juvenile cubs named Romulus and Remus.
According to the company, some of the dire wolf fossils used for DNA extraction include a tooth that is 13,000 years old and an inner ear bone that dates back 72,000 years.
Additionally, they mentioned that one female puppy, Khaleesi, was among the “successfully birthed” cubs.
Corey Bradshaw, a professor of global ecology at Flinders University in Australia, expressed skepticism regarding Colossal’s assertions and the feasibility of reviving an extinct species like the dire wolf.
As Mr. Bradshaw elaborated, it is practically impossible to reconstruct the entire genomes of creatures that have been extinct for millennia due to issues such as DNA degradation.
“So yes, they may have slightly genetically modified wolves. That’s probably the best outcome you could achieve. Those slight modifications seem to have been sourced from retrieved dire wolf material. Does that classify it as a dire wolf? No. Is it a slightly altered gray wolf? Yes,” Mr. Bradshaw remarked to Reuters.
“When you make grand claims like this without corresponding evidence, especially in a matter as contentious as this, it raises a significant red flag,” he added.
The dire wolf has become a staple in the fantasy genre within pop culture, featuring in role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons and video games like World of Warcraft.
However, the HBO series Game of Thrones, adapted from the works of George RR Martin, is primarily responsible for popularizing dire wolves.
Mr. Martin, who is an investor in Colossal and serves as a cultural advisor for the company, remarked: “Many individuals see dire wolves as mythical creatures that exist solely in fantasy, but they actually have a profound history contributing to the American ecosystem.”
“While I write about magic, Ben and Colossal have created their own magic by reintroducing these magnificent beings back into our world.”
Founded in 2021, Colossal Biosciences claims to be the first biotechnology enterprise to harness CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) gene editing technology to explore species de-extinction.
Moreover, Colossal reported that it has recently cloned critically endangered red wolves using the same technology, in addition to creating the hybrid Colossal Woolly Mouse-mice, genetically engineered to exhibit traits of the long-extinct woolly mammoth.
