At the beginning of April, exciting news reached public ears as scientists at Colossal Biosciences revealed that they had successfully brought back the 12,000-year-extinct dire wolf.
By using the previous largest living wolf and closest related species to the dire wolf—the gray wolf—scientists have managed to create three dire wolf pups by using ancient DNA, gene-editing, and cloning technology to alter the genes of a gray wolf. Colossal Bioscience announced that the result was essentially a hybrid species similar in appearance to the extinct dire wolf. Colossal has publicly mentioned its work toward resurrecting the mammoth, dodo bird, and Tasmanian tiger since 2021, but it had not previously published its work on resurrecting dire wolves until recently.
Dr. Casey Wilson, associate professor at Allegheny College who specializes in ecology and conservation, was approached with questions about the return of dire wolves and has spoken her opinion on some areas of this ongoing project.
“This type of work has been happening behind the scenes for awhile, but the dire wolf hype really took off, and people had a lot of emotions about it. Most people think the idea is to create a bunch of packs and let them roam free. Most people also think this is a 100% dire wolf (from a genetic standpoint). It’s not. Scientific communication is really important… making sure people understand what’s really happening is one of the biggest parts of science and it’s important to relay the information correctly, especially in the case of a large carnivore, since the general population has negative feelings towards carnivores to begin with.”
The truth is, the information being presented to the public by various websites is not always the truth; most adults understand this and search for trusted government-backed or lab-proven results from multiple trusted sources, usually those that are in on the publicly announced discovery.
Colossal’s co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm has stated, “Our team took DNA from a 13,000 year old tooth and a 72,000 year old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies.” Currently, the three Dire wolves are living at an undisclosed location with respectable acreage to grow and are monitored by security personnel. Colossal has stated that the facility has been certified by the American Humane Society and is registered with the US Department of Agriculture, making it clear that legal measures have been taken and approved. Colossal has an entire section of their website titled “Pioneering Ethical De-Extinction Aligned With Global Conservation Standards” which talks about their mission briefly and how it follows the IUCN standards.
Common misconceptions floating around the internet on this topic mainly involve the eagerness at bringing back 100% blooded dire wolves, which is not the case. Gray wolves play an incredibly important role in this revival as they are the closest living relative to the dire wolf, which is why they were taken for gene modification. This means that they are not fully blooded dire wolves, but a mix of the species. In order for dire wolves to be fully restored in modern day, many experts say that there would be much selective breeding and, unfortunately, inbreeding as well to make pure dire wolves.
Wilson, when asked about her feelings on the return of the dire wolf, said, “I think the science behind the dire wolf announcement is advanced and shows how far genetic research has come in the past century. However, I think it’s important for people to realize what is actually taking place versus what they hear on news and social media platforms. These wolves had pieces of dire wolf genetics, but they are far from a purebred dire wolf, even if they have some traits that look like one. The majority of the genetic material is from gray wolves.” Many websites, such as the New York Times and Times Magazine, have recalled the tools used to bring back these creatures, involving taking DNA from fossils and mainly genetic engineering. She also proves a valid point in stating that it’s important that people understand what is being posted and not believe everything told on websites. These are genetically modified gray wolves, not fully blooded dire wolves.
At Colossal, not only are the dire wolf pups being well taken care of, but they are also monitored constantly and were named for convenience and enjoyment, some may say. Remus and Remulus are both male, 6-month-old pups that were the first to be officially classified as “dire wolves.” Following the birth of the two males, Khalesi was the first female to be born and is currently 3 months old. With the joy of having new pups around, however, comes the concern for other animals’ welfare. George Church, a co-founder at Colossal has expressed his concerns for this as well.
“Preserving, expanding, and testing genetic diversity should be done well before important endangered animal species like the red wolf are lost. Another source of ecosystem variety stems from our new technologies to de-extinct lost genes, including deep ancient DNA sequencing, polyphyletic trait analyses, multiplex germline editing, and cloning. The dire wolf is an early example of this, including the largest number of precise genomic edits in a healthy vertebrate so far. A capability that is growing exponentially.”
Finally, Wilson was asked for her insight and opinions on the scientific advances still going on and what resulted from these creatures being brought back.
“I’m unsure of the practical application of bringing back a species (or a few individuals) that went extinct thousands of years ago, but again, the science behind the work is really advanced and, in my opinion, really interesting. In this case, the genes used created characteristics that gave the pups a dire wolf appearance, but again, this is not a genetically identical dire wolf from 10,000 years ago.” She expressed this, then further touched on a similar concern that Church held. “Biodiversity is being threatened around the world at an astronomical rate; we’re losing species really quickly and I think genetic work is and will be critical to conservation as we face more and more extinctions globally. So again, the science is cool and right now it appears to be a stepping stone that could be used to help critically endangered species that are still on earth today (perhaps red wolves?).”
Despite these concerns and technicalities, the undeniable truth here is that science has progressed, and some variant of the once extinct dire wolves is now back. But will this be the beginning of a scientific breakthrough on extinction? Or a gamble with not fully developed science? Regardless, with all of this in mind, this is still news that we received at the beginning of April. Updates are still continuously being posted through various news sources, and if you’d like to stay informed and up to date with information on the three dire wolf pups, I would highly recommend looking at https://colossal.com/direwolf/, Colossal’s official website with in-depth information on Remus, Remulus, and Khalesi.
