Meet the dire wolf puppies: How a Texas lab brought an extinct species back to life after 12,500 years
The dire wolf, a species famously featured in the HBO series Game of Thrones, has been extinct for nearly 12,500 year
Dallas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences has announced the birth of three dire wolf puppies—Remus, Romulus, and Khaleesi.
The dire wolf, a species famously featured in the HBO series Game of Thrones, has been extinct for nearly 12,500 years.
According to the company, adolescent males Romulus and Remus were born in October 2024, while female puppy Khaleesi arrived in January of this year. In addition to reviving the dire wolf, Colossal has also cloned two litters of red wolves, the world's most critically endangered wolf species.
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"I could not be more proud of the team. This massive milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works," CEO of Colossal 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 made healthy dire wolf puppies. It was once said, 'any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.' Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they are working on and its broader impact on conservation," Lamm added.
How did the Texas company bring an extinct species back to life?
According to the press release, scientists revived the dire wolf by extracting and sequencing DNA from two fossils.
They compared these ancient genomes to those of living canids like wolves and foxes, finding unique gene traits, such as white coat color and thick fur, linked to cold Pleistocene climates. Using gene editing on a gray wolf's genome, they made 20 changes in 14 genes, including 15 extinct variants.
Edited cells were tested and cloned into donor egg cells. After embryo transfer and surrogacy, they successfully birthed a dire wolf.
"The de-extinction of the dire wolf and an end-to-end system for de-extinction is transformative and heralds an entirely new era of human stewardship of life," Dr Christopher Mason, a scientific advisor and member of the board of observers for Colossal, said in the press release.
"The same technologies that created the dire wolf can directly help save a variety of other endangered animals as well. This is an extraordinary technological leap in genetic engineering efforts for both science and for conservation as well as preservation of life, and a wonderful example of the power of biotechnology to protect species, both extant and extinct."
