Dire wolves are back from the dead? Extinct big beasts from 'Game of Thrones' howl again

US-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences seems to have done the impossible -- they have brought back the dire wolf from extinction.

 

Genetically modifying the genes of grey wolves, the closest living member of the dire wolves, Colossal scientists have created three dire wolf pups. Ancient DNA data recovered from fossils of the long-extinct creatures was also crucial to the process, reports said. 

 

The two males, Romulus and Remus, are named after the mythical founders of Rome, raised by a wolf, while the female pup, called Khaleesi, is named after a character in 'Game of Thrones'.

 

In 2021, a separate team of scientists took on the tedious task of retrieving ancient DNA from dire wolf fossils, reports The New York Times. The company later utilised CRISPR technology to modify 14 genes in grey wolves, and lo and behold: towards the end of 2024, three healthy dire wolf pups cried out after a 10,000-plus-year silence.

Beth Shapiro, the chief scientific officer of Colossal, described the dire 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, reported by The New York Times.

Netizens reacted to the revival of the majestic creatures, with some expressing fear at a Jurassic Park-like situation, while others embraced Colossal's dream to change the meaning of extinction forever and to reshape the future of conservation. Some, like Elon Musk, also requested such creatures to keep as pets.

 

 

 

 

Reposting photos with the dire wolf, he wrote on X: “Please make a miniature pet woolly mammoth.”

 

 

 

 

Although Colossal's achievement is no small feat, and it proudly claims to have received an American Humane Certification, the ethics of de-extinction remain a grey area, prompting questions of the man playing God and the impact on the ecosystem. Only time will tell which fossil comes back next, and what it might do.   

 

Sci/Tech