Colossal Biosciences Raises the Dire Wolf From Extinction

Biotechnology startup Colossal Biosciences has brought the dire wolf, which disappeared over 10,000 years ago, back to life — the first-ever successful de-extinction of an animal.

The Big Picture: By recreating the dire wolf, Colossal proves that its ambition to revive the woolly mammoth (which it’s taken steps to make possible) may not be so crazy after all. Expect investors to stampede like… well… a herd of mammoths, ya know.

Between the Genes: Colossal would like to introduce its three newest pups — males Romulus and Remus and female Khaleesi (named after the character in Game of Thrones, which acquainted most people with dire wolves).

• Now six months old, the litter was created using DNA extracted from two dire wolf fossils (a skull and a tooth) and 20 edits to the genetic code of a gray wolf (the dire wolves’ closest living relative), blended using CRISPR tech.
• The pups, which have fluffy white hair, will reach a weight between 130 and 150 pounds.
• The wolves now live in an enclosed 2,000-acre preserve at an undisclosed location, per THR.
• Colossal hopes to breed them into a viable species once again in North America (they used to roam the area where LA now sits) and house them on preserves located within Indigenous land.
• As a bonus, the company also cloned two litters of red wolves, which are the most critically endangered wolf species in the world.

The Future: If cloning a dire wolf wasn’t cool enough, the company got filmmaker and Colossal investor Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings, King Kong) to loan his official 330-pound Game of Thrones Iron Throne prop for a photoshoot with the wolves. It also got GoT author George R.R. Martin to sign on as a cultural advisor and investor in the company (yes, he got to meet the wolves).

Oh, and it wasn’t lost on many that a company literally recreated dire wolves before Martin could finish his next installment in the A Song of Fire and Ice series, The Winds of Winter.