PREVIOUSLY EXTINCT DIRE WOLF SUCCESSFULLY BROUGHT BACK BY THE USE OF BIO TECHNOLOGY

Fans of Game of Thrones will be familiar with dire wolves, the faithful companions of the Stark children. They are now, however, much more than just characters in a popular TV program. After going extinct for more than 12,500 years, Colossal Bioscience has revived the species. The de-extinction company declared that it had achieved a historic milestone by successfully delivering three dire wolves.

Using gene-editing techniques, Colossal was able to alter the common grey wolf's DNA using DNA from a 72,000-year-old skull and a tooth that was 13,000 years old. Three litters were born to domestic dogs that served as surrogates. According to Colossal's statement, two teenage males named Romulus and Remus, along with one female puppy named Khaleesi, are currently residing on a secure, expansive ecological preserve that spans more than 2,000 acres and is licensed with the USDA and approved by the American Humane Society. In homage to Game of Thrones, Khaleesi was born on January 30, 2025, while Romulus and Remus, named after the legendary brothers who established ancient Rome, were born on October 1, 2024.

With its intentions to revive long-extinct animals like the woolly mammoth and the dodo, Colossal has been in the news for years. Most recently, they produced a mouse hybrid that resembles a woolly mammoth and has luxuriant hair. The American canid known as the dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus) lived between 125,000 and 10,000 years ago during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene periods. Scientists are still trying to figure out why they and a large portion of the world's megafauna went extinct early in the Holocene epoch.

The company's ability to modify the grey wolf's genes to closely resemble the species is admirable, even though Colossal's dire wolves aren't exact DNA matches. Furthermore, Colossal hasn't limited its focus to a prehistoric species in this instance. The business also disclosed that it had produced multiple litters of red wolves from three distinct genetic lines in the same statement. Originally from the southeast of the United States, this severely endangered species has been bred in captivity since the 1970s. Colossal thinks that species like the red wolf can persist thanks to the genetic work it undertakes.

According to Dr. George Church, a Harvard geneticist and co-founder of Colossal, "it is crucial to preserve, expand, and assess genetic variety well before important endangered animal species like the red wolf are destroyed." "Our new methods to de-extinct missing genes, such as multiplex germline editing, cloning, polyphyletic trait assessments, and deep ancient DNA sequencing, are another source of ecosystem variation." With the greatest number of precise genomic alterations in a healthy vertebrate to date, the dire wolf is an early example of this. a capacity that is rapidly expanding.

But not all scientists concur that Colossal is on the right track. Nic Rawlence, an assistant professor and director of the Paleogenetics Laboratory at the University of Otago in New Zealand, tells The Washington Post, "The truth is we can't de-extinct extinct creatures because we can't employ cloning—the DNA is just not sufficiently preserved."

Others fear that valuable financial resources intended for conventional conservation will be redirected to de-extinction technology, which could lead to the extinction of further species. But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who oversees the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is excited about Colossal's development. Burgum expressed his excitement about "the potential of 'de-extinction' technology and how it may serve broader purposes beyond the recovery of lost species, including strengthening biodiversity protection efforts and helping endangered or at-risk species" in an official statement published on X (formerly Twitter).

Colossal's dire wolves will remain under study for the time being, receive lifetime care from veterinary professionals, and may eventually relocate to a larger refuge if necessary. This accomplishment simply indicates that Colossal CEO Ben Lamm's efforts are moving in the correct path. "I am incredibly proud of the team. This significant accomplishment is the first of many that will show how effective our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack is.