Someone tell Jon Snow, dire wolves are back! After a brief respite of over 10,000 years of extinction a Texas company by the name of Colossal has restored the dire wolf species through the de-extinction science.
Who is Colossal?
Colossal Biosciences is an American biotechnology and genetic engineering company that is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 2021 by geneticist Dr. George Church along with entrepreneur Ben Lamm, the company aims to revitalize ecosystems and restore biodiversity loss by de-extinction of species that include dire wolves, woolly mammoth, dodo, and thylacine (Tasmanian tiger).
How did the company bring the dire wolves back from extinction?
Insert Jessie Pinkman quote here. While we’re not going to pretend like we can possibly understand how the scientists at Colossal resurrected the dire wolves species, the most simplest explanation is this: once scientists were able to procure dire wolf DNA from fossils, the company compared the DNA between present wolves and dogs – discerning the differences between the species.
Upon discovering those differences, scientists applied the use of the sophisticated CRISPR gene-editing technology to modify a common grey wolf wolf embryo with that of a dire wolf. Following the company placed the modified embryo into a domestic surrogate canine and voila! Three dire wolf pups were born.
How are the new dire wolves?
Announced this April, the three dire wolf pups named “Romulus”, “Remus”, and were born this past fall – winter for Khaleesi. By all measures, the dire wolves appear to be healthy and behave in a way to that you’d expect from the species. While the specific location of the dire wolf pups is undisclosed – to minimize human interference – the pups are presently settled in a 2,000-acre, fence-enclosed ecological preserve.
“For the first time in human history, Colossal successfully restored a once-eradicated species through the science of de-extinction,” the Colossal website writes.
“After a 10,000+ year absence, our team is proud to return the dire wolf to its rightful place in the ecosystem. Colossal’s innovations in science, technology and conservation made it possible to accomplish something that’s never been done before. The revival of a species from its longstanding population of zero.”
Why did the company bring dire wolves back from extinction?
As stated, Colossal’s reason for its de-extinction efforts have been in conservation and ecosystem stabilization efforts in order to recalibrate “nature’s natural balance” as well as to prevent further biodiversity losses.
“If we want a future that is both bionumerous and filled with people,” said Colossal’s chief science officer, Beth Shapiro, “we should be giving ourselves the opportunity to see what our big brains can do to reverse some of the bad things that we’ve done to the world already.”
What’s next for Colossal?
The dire wolves are just one of the species that Colossal is working on bringing back from extinction of the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger, and dodo. As for the woolly mammoth, the company successfully sequenced the genome of an Asian elephant – giving the company necessary information to finding its similarity to the woolly mammoth and further gene-editing efforts. Colossal aims to de-extinct the woolly mammoth by 2028.