A Texas-based startup, Colossal Biosciences, sparked global fascination and debate this week by unveiling footage of three canines it claimed to be dire wolves — an animal believed to have vanished over 12,000 years ago.
“For the first time in human history, Colossal successfully restored a once-eradicated species through the science of de-extinction,” the company stated on its official website.
Photos and videos of the animals inundated social media platforms, eliciting both awe and concern from the scientific community. Experts voiced comparisons to the plot of "Jurassic Park", which featured a wealthy man’s quest to revive dinosaurs.
The company explained that it achieved the feat by modifying the DNA of a modern grey wolf using selected genes extracted from dire wolf fossils. This reconstructed genetic sequence was inserted into a grey wolf egg, which was then implanted into a domestic dog serving as a surrogate mother.
As a result, Colossal Biosciences asserted the birth of three dire wolf puppies, whom the firm named Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi.
From the University of Adelaide, evolutionary molecular biologist Alan Cooper, who had previously participated in a study on dire wolf DNA, dismissed the claims. “I think the claims are vastly overblown,” Cooper told the foreign news agency. “It would be like me putting a couple of genes into you from Neanderthals that made you extra hairy and grow more muscles, and then called you a Neanderthal. That's a million miles from Neanderthal. It's a hairy human.”
From the University of Idaho, ecologist and professor of wildlife resources Lisette Waits, an expert on grey wolf genetics and red wolf conservation, commented, “This is not the dire wolf. This is something they have created that has phenotypic characteristics of dire wolf.” Despite her reservations, Waits described the development as a breakthrough.
Colossal Biosciences based its procedure on the analysis of DNA derived from two dire wolf fossils — a tooth dated at 13,000 years and a skull fragment estimated at 72,000 years. These sequences were compared against modern grey wolf DNA.
According to the company’s chief science officer, Beth Shapiro, the DNA of the dire and grey wolf shared 99.5 percent similarity. Differences between the two were examined to identify genes potentially responsible for the dire wolf’s larger frame, muscular build, and distinctive white fur.
Using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique, the team inserted a total of twenty dire wolf genes into grey wolf blood cells. These cells were then transferred into grey wolf egg cells, later implanted in a domestic dog.
Whether these offspring represent true dire wolves or genetically altered grey wolves, Shapiro told the foreign news agency, “is a semantic, philosophical argument.” She acknowledged the impossibility of recreating an extinct species with complete genetic fidelity.
“But neither is that the goal. Our goal is to create functional equivalents of those species,” the scientist said.
Colossal Biosciences also revealed its ambition to replicate this process with dodo birds and woolly mammoths.
In a prior disclosure, the firm released images of mice infused with woolly mammoth DNA, causing a stir due to their exaggeratedly furry appearance.
From Northeastern University, professor of philosophy and ethics Ronald Sandler expressed concern that such endeavours might distract from pressing environmental issues.
Sandler remarked that the technology could cause a “moral distraction” from root causes of extinction, such as climate change and habitat degradation.
Meanwhile, Waits noted that the underlying technique could benefit endangered species recovery, regardless of the publicity generated by this particular case.
She added that Colossal Biosciences secured over $200 million in funding — a feat rarely accomplished within conventional conservation circles.
