A team of scientists has announced a remarkable achievement: they claim to have revived a species of wolf that went extinct over 10,000 years ago. This bold assertion comes from Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering company that has created three pups they say are the first examples of a "de-extincted" dire wolf.
On October 1, 2024, two of the pups, named Romulus and Remus, made their debut in a video shared by Colossal. The pups can be seen howling, marking what the company describes as the first howl of a dire wolf in more than a millennium. A third pup, named Khaleesi after a character from "Game of Thrones," was born earlier this year on January 31.
Colossal claims to have achieved this feat by using advanced genetic editing techniques. They reconstructed a complete genome of the dire wolf from ancient DNA found in fossils, including a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old inner ear bone. By editing the DNA of grey wolves, their closest living relatives, the team made 20 specific changes across 14 genes. These edits were intended to mimic characteristics of dire wolves, such as coat color and body size.
The pups were born through a process where fertilized eggs were implanted into surrogate dogs. While Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi may look and sound like their extinct ancestors, they are not exact genetic replicas. As Colossal’s chief scientific officer, Beth Shapiro, noted, these pups are being raised in a controlled environment, which means they won’t learn the natural behaviors typical of wild dire wolves.
Experts have weighed in on this groundbreaking project. Adam Boyko, a geneticist at Cornell University, expressed excitement about the potential to create functional versions of extinct species. However, he pointed out that the pups cannot truly be considered dire wolves since they are not being raised in a wild setting where they would develop their natural instincts.
Critics have also raised concerns about the genetic accuracy of the pups. Although Colossal claims that grey wolves and dire wolves share 99.5% of their DNA, this still leaves many differences. The New Scientist highlighted that with only 20 gene edits, the pups may not fully represent the dire wolf’s genetic makeup.
Despite these debates, Colossal remains optimistic about their work. They believe that even if the pups are not perfect replicas, their appearance and behavior can provide valuable insights into the biology of the extinct species. As the project continues, it raises important questions about the ethics and implications of de-extinction efforts.