Formerly a Utah Predator, The Dire Wolf Is Back From Extinction

Last month, Colossal Biosciences showed off its new "Woolly Mouse," and promised more innovative and groundbreaking animal species in the near future.

Today, the big tech company delivered on the first of those promises.

Colossal Biosciences used DNA from a 13-thousand year old tooth to bring back an extinct breed of wolf, called a dire wolf.

The dire wolf was made famous in the HBO series Game of Thrones, and the show's creator, George R.R. Martin, is an investor in the project.

Researchers started with remains found in Ohio and Idaho. The cells were cloned and then bred using a gray wolf, which is the closest living relative.

Colossal said the pups are living on a two-thousand acre ecological preserve, surrounded by 10-foot-tall, zoo-grade fencing.

"We’re Colossal Biosciences, the de-extinction company responsible for bringing back the first animals from extinction. Our dire wolf pups, Romulus and Remus, were born on October 1, 2024," the company wrote on X.

The dire wolf has been extinct for thousands of years.

The X post continued: "These two wolves were returned from extinction using genetic edits derived from a complete dire wolf genome, meticulously reconstructed from ancient DNA found in fossils dating back 11,500 and 72,000 years."

The post about the dire wolves on X drew hundreds of responses, likes and comments. Here are a few:

• Dire Wolves became extinct for a reason. They don’t fit the present system. A fun party trick, but keep it at the party -- Ken W.
• And I would say there was a reason things went extinct that long ago why flirt with potential issues bringing things back. It's a Pandora box. Besides I thought cloning was not allowed. So now it is? -- W.H
• Humans need to stop playing god. Over 99% of all species is extinct. We don’t need to create another problem. -- T.E.
• Why? Have we not learned from all the Jurassic Park movies how this ends?? -- Daryl T.
• While these genetically engineered wolves exhibit physical and behavioral traits reminiscent of dire wolves, they are not true dire wolves. The genetic modifications introduced specific dire wolf characteristics into the gray wolf genome, resulting in animals that are essentially gray wolves with selected phenotypic traits of dire wolves, rather than exact replicas of the extinct species. -- NDN
• This is incredibly misleading. The dire wolf isn’t back, they adjusted the genetic code of a common gray wolf and used domesticated dogs as surrogate mothers. So it is NOT an actual dire wolf. -- Christian R.
• I've seen this movie, it doesn't end well. -- Bob P.

Although most reaction from commenters was fairly negative, Colossal says it plans to keep going, mentioning future plans for animals like the Woolly Mammoth and the Dodo Bird.

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