Dire wolves are back through the science of de-extinction
Three dire wolf pups are currently being cared for.
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| Dire wolves are back |
Bringing back extinct animals
Scientists have announced a major development in their efforts to revive extinct animals.
After over 10,000 years, the dire wolves are back after Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences claimed that they have successfully created three dire wolf pups. This was done through ancient DNA, cloning, and gene-editing technology to alter the genes of a gray wolf, the creature's closest living relative.
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| The embryo |
Dire wolves are visually similar to gray wolves and jackals, but they have a distinct genetic lineage. Unlike with the gray wolf and jackal, which can produce hybrid offspring with related species, no current data shows interbreeding between dire wolves and other canids.
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| 1-month-old pups |
The three dire wolves currently under the care of Colossal are Remus and Romulus, which are both six-month-old male wolves, and Khaleesi, a three-month-old female wolf.
Scientists extracted ancient DNA from two dire wolf fossils. These were used to assemble two complete sets of genetic information, which underwent genetic analysis.
Healthy developing embryos were then transferred into surrogates for interspecies gestation, Colossal said, who confirmed to CNN that it used large, mixed-breed dogs as surrogates.
The two male dire wolf pups were born on October 1, 2024, while the female pup was born on January 30, 2025.
They are currently living on a 2,000-acre site at an undisclosed location enclosed by 10-foot-tall "zoo-grade" fencing. They are being monitored by security personnel, drones, and live camera feeds.
This massive milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works, said Ben Lamm, Colossal's co-founder and CEO, as quoted in a CNN report.
Before this announcement, it was already known that Colossal had been working on resurrecting the mammoth, dodo, and Tasmanian tiger since 2021.
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