Posted by Leslie Eastman
The last time I reported on the scientists at Colossal Biosciences, they had have created a genetically engineered mouse dubbed the “woolly mouse” as a step towards their goal of resurrecting the woolly mammoth.
The end product of their work was a new breed of mouse exhibiting several mammoth-like traits.
Now, the team has done something that I would have thought impossible: Using genetic technology to revive an animal even cuter….the dire wolf.
As with the mice, Colossal Biosciences used genetic engineering to recreate traits of the extinct dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus). Two genetically modified gray wolves, named Romulus and Remus, after the mythological twins, were born in October 2024.
These wolves were engineered using CRISPR technology to incorporate 20 genetic edits that mimic dire wolf characteristics, such as larger size, stronger jaws, broader heads, white coats, and unique vocalizations.
The dire wolf once roamed an American range that extended as far south as Venezuela and as far north as Canada, but not a single one has been seen in over 10,000 years, when the species went extinct. Plenty of dire wolf remains have been discovered across the Americas, however, and that presented an opportunity for a company named Colossal Biosciences.
Relying on deft genetic engineering and ancient, preserved DNA, Colossal scientists deciphered the dire wolf genome, rewrote the genetic code of the common gray wolf to match it, and, using domestic dogs as surrogate mothers, brought Romulus, Remus, and their sister, 2-month-old Khaleesi, into the world during three separate births last fall and this winter—effectively for the first time de-extincting a line of beasts whose live gene pool long ago vanished. TIME met the males (Khaleesi was not present due to her young age) at a fenced field in a U.S. wildlife facility on March 24, on the condition that their location remain a secret to protect the animals from prying eyes.
And while the company may be keeping the puppies hidden from the public, Romulus and Remus have become a media sensation. Part of the excitement is based on the dire wolves being a key feature of the popular HBO series, Game of Thrones. Colossal Biosciences is claiming a “de-extinction” success, and plans now include reviving a red wolf species.
They are big, for one thing, and have dense, pale coats not found in gray wolves. Colossal, which was valued at $10 billion in January, is keeping the wolves on a private 2,000-acre facility at an undisclosed location in the northern United States.
Beth Shapiro, the chief scientific officer of Colossal, described the wolf pups as the first successful case of de-extinction. “We’re creating these functional copies of something that used to be alive,” she said in an interview.
The animals will remain in captivity. But the technology that the company has developed could potentially help conserve species that have not yet gone extinct, such as the critically endangered red wolf, which is largely limited to North Carolina.
In 2022, red wolf-coyote hybrids were discovered in Texas and Louisiana. On Monday, Colossal also announced that it had produced four clones from the hybrids. Hypothetically, introducing these clones to North Carolina could improve the genetic diversity of the red wolf population there and help the species avoid extinction.
Interestingly, the author of Game of Thrones is an investor in the company.
And while the puppies are certainly cute, the branding of this as a “de-exctinction” is questionable.
There are other ethical considerations as well. Dire wolves were specialized predators that primarily hunted large herbivores such as bison, horses, and camels. Many of these megafaunal species either went extinct or experienced significant population declines at the end of the last Ice Age, likely due to climate change and super-charged human hunting abilities (especially when they paired up with regular dogs).
The only way these dire wolves become a revived species is
1) The entire genetic sequence is from actual dire wolves;
2) The breed on their own; and,
3) They can thrive in the wild.
I do not see this happening anytime soon.
Currently, as cute as Romulus and Remus are, they are a novelty and a species confined to zoological enclosures. But the howl is so precious.
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Not to worry, they’re re-extincted according to the Bee!
https://babylonbee.com/news/dire-wolves-extinct-again-after-new-dr-fauci-experiments
We already have an environmental crisis with the “reintroduction” of Canadian gray wolves into OR, WA, ID, MT, CO, and NM. Insane liberals get twinky about foisting bloodthirsty killers into somebody else’s backyard. A better idea would be to dump wolves, grizzly bears and mountain lions into the halls of Congress and state legislatures. Let them deal with “cute” predators up close and personal.
BTW, the Carolina “red wolf” is a coyote/dog hybrid. It’s not an ancient endemic endangered species. That kind of woke “environmentalism” is why we need to rescind the ESA.
They are hybrids.
Not even. They’re CRISPR mutants.
The techniques used to achieve this nutty idea are one thing, but a hybrid is still two different but closely related species put together.
Are the wolf cubs sterile?
You’re about to find out when they release the female into the pack.
They are hybrids.
Aren’t they technically “GMO’s”?
O/T Tariffs are all the rage…
“”MPs in the Culture, Media, and Sport committee are calling for a new tax on streaming services. Higher prices for UK streamers…
This tax, 5% of subscriber revenue, would be put “into a cultural fund to help finance drama with a specific interest to…””
https://order-order.com/2025/04/10/mps-call-for-new-tax-on-streaming-customers-after-netflix-drama-adolescence/
Labour’s luvvie friends and supporters.
Next thing you know they will bring back Neanderthals. Oh wait, they’re already here. Many politicians, climate scientists and journalists qualify.;))
Neanderthal people were vastly more intelligent than any living Climate “Scientist”.
Only rarely can anyone recreate an extinct species in only one breed-crossing. Nothing wrong with what has been tried here but surely we should be given some detail of what is next to be done, how long and what other things might be needed.?
I thought a dire wolf was “600 pounds of sin.”
Please don’t murder me.
“The end product of their work was a new breed of mouse exhibiting several mammoth-like traits.”
I’d like to see a mouse the size of a mammoth. 🙂
Does it have a trunk?
Does it have a trunk?
Only when travelling. ! 🙂
That’s maybe why elephants have something with mice. There used to be a mammoth size mouse.
This is wrong on so many levels…
[…]
The Return of the Dire Wolf | TIME
These puppies will never be dogs, nor will they ever be wolves. The notion of puppies shunning human contact is heartbreaking.
Just think about it… 40,000 years of evolution did this:
40,000 years ago, Late Pleistocene
After 5:00 PM, Early Pomocene
Once a species goes extinct its had its shot. Why don’t they accept that fact?
–George Carlin, 1992
https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/comedy/george-carlin-saving-planet-transcript/
One exception is the Passenger Pigeons that humans hunted to extinction.
Otherwise, yes.
Nobody appears to want them back.
I haven’t made up my mind … what does dire wolf steak taste like 🙂
The point of my post is the Passenger Pigeons did not “have their shot” with nature selecting them for extinction. This was a unique case of anthropogenic extinction of a species.
at what point in history did homo sapiens become separate from nature?
1719?
1524?
985?
128?
was it BC?
(there was also the Dodo … probably many others)
They look like baby polar bears. (in the top image)
Any chance they could make similar changes to a dog breed (ex. German Shepherds or Collies) and make friendly, fluffy Dire Dogs?
Asking for a friend.
They aren’t Dire wolves, they are Grey wolves into which a few Dire wolf characteristics have been edited.
While DNA and genetics are fascinating subjects, I have to wonder that by “playing God” or at least the potential of opening “Pandora’s Box) will lead to unintended consequences beyond our vision.
will lead to unintended consequences
I remember a movie about that…
….. you mean DIRE consequences ! 😉
unintended consequences are usually dire.
Inevitable pandoras box march toward beautiful genius super athlete human children who converge to certain styles like cars on the highway.
The real ethical problems lurk unaddressed.
If you can control whether your child is trans, do you do it?
If AI tells you people are different, do you treat them differently?
If clothes make you invisible, do you rob a bank?
*yes, you make them not.
*yes (regardless of AI telling you anything)
*only if you are very lazy. Lots of other ways to make money with invisible clothes.
The real issue is that the legacy media is locked into the plotline of the 1930’s Frankenstein movie. “Mad scientist fools around with Nature!” and never actually looks at what is actually being done.
There are fairly minimal changes from Grey wolves, 20 or so “genes” changed to be more like a Dire Wolf, out of a good many more differences between natural Grey Wolves and Dire Wolves.
My personal take is that the reaction is mostly hysteria.
Can someone enlighten me as to the purpose of this sort of research and experiments? What is the end goal? What are they actually trying to achieve?
The six breasted chicken. Duh.
cuz its there.
If these wolves are big and vicious enough to kill humans, what will happen the first time that takes place? Will the genetic manipulators be held responsible?
They’ll have to have a wolf cull the way indigenous groups in Canada’s North do when they’ve failed to control or spay their dogs or feed them properly. Then they form packs and wind up killing some young kid so that they have to be wiped out en masse.
Idiotic.
Have these guys never seen the documentary series Jurassic Park?
Or the episode of Doomwatch and the chicken with two human heads!
The species can never be returned as the gene pool is too small to allow for successful regeneration
One theory for their extinction claims that they had smaller brains than current grey wolves so that they were slower to adapt to the loss of their traditional prey due to climate change and increasingly effective human hunting practices.
No, this is in order to produce foolish investors so they can be fleeced. It is more about sheep than wolves!
IMO these are dire wolves in name only….What they have done is to vastly speed up the process of traditionally breeding animals to get desired characteristics. The domestic dog and the grey wolf have very similar genes (and can interbreed), and so it would be possible to traditionally breed wolves to develop certain characteristics. This has been done with domestic dogs for hundreds But, that would take decades, and this company just took a shortcut. That’s about the crux of it. Interesting, but not a true dire wolf.
They did no such thing as “match” the genetic code. Some of it, yes. Cute genetic dabbling, but of no practical basis. I hope the tax payers aren’t financing this silliness.