Colossal Biosciences, the Texas-based company that specializes in genetic de-extinction, a field of scientific research that aims to bring extinct animals or plants back to life using advanced technologies such as genetic engineering and cloning, has announced the birth of three pups of the dire wolf, a prehistoric predator that has been extinct for 13,000 years. The canine lived in the Americas during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs. The species was named in 1858, four years after the first specimen had been found.
It is the first species to be successfully brought back to life using ancient DNA. The pups, named Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi, were generated from genetic material extracted from a tooth of the animal from Ohio and a skull of the specimen found in Idaho, and carried to term by canine surrogate mothers. Scientists extracted ancient DNA from dire wolf fossils to sequence their genome and then edited the DNA of gray wolves to match the dire wolf traits.
The project, spearheaded by Colossal and co-founded by Harvard biologist George Church, also aims to revive the woolly mammoth, an extinct species of elephant that lived during the Pleistocene, sometime between 200,000 and about 5. 000 years ago in Europe, Asia, and North America; the thylacine, also known as the marsupial wolf or Tasmanian tiger, a carnivore that lived in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea that became extinct in the 1930s; and the dodo, an extinct bird that lived in Mauritius that has become emblematic of human impact on biodiversity.
The dire wolf was native to North America where, according to experts, it lived for thousands of years alongside saber-toothed tigers and mastodons. Colossal Biosciences CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm said in a press release, “Our team took DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull and created healthy wolf pups.” The expert enthusiastically added, “It used to be said: any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Today, our team reveals some of the ‘magic’ they are working on and its broader impact on conservation.”
The pups currently live in a 809-hectare ecological preserve in the northern United States. Lamm recounted that they are very friendly with the team as he has raised and bottle-fed them since they were very young. Now that they are about six months old and growing in contact with the outdoors, they are becoming more independent, as is the nature of these predators.
