OAN Staff Abril Elfi
12:47 PM – Monday, April 7, 2025
Colossal Biosciences, the genetic engineering company working to bring back the woolly mammoth, has announced that they have successfully brought back the dire wolf after nearly 13,000 years of extinction.
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The genetic company announced on Monday that the long-extinct canine, which was famously mentioned by the Grateful Dead in their 1970 ballad “Dire Wolf,” has essentially been brought back to life via DNA extracted from two fossils — as well as “20 edits of the genetic code” of a gray wolf, the species’ closest living relative.
“This moment marks not only a milestone for us as a company but also a leap forward for science, conservation, and humanity. From the beginning, our goal has been clear: To revolutionize history and be the first company to use CRISPR technology successfully in the de-extinction of previously lost species,” the company said.
“By achieving this, we continue to push forward our broader mission on—accepting humanity’s duty to restore Earth to a healthier state,” they continued.
According to the research by Colossal, they whelped the three dire wolves using “CRISPR” technology. Researchers also noted that they wanted the wolves to have white fluffy fur.
CRISPR, which is short for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,” is a technology that research scientists use to selectively modify the DNA of living organisms, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute.
“Our team took DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies,” Colossal CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm said in a statement. “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.”
The two male wolves are named “Romulus” and “Remus,” after the mythological twin founders of Rome. Since at least the 3rd century B.C., the picture of a “she-wolf” nursing the twins during their early years has served as a representation of Rome and the ancient Romans.
As for the third female dire wolf, she has been named “Khaleesi” after “Game of Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen. Six dire wolves, belonging to “House Stark,” appear in the series.
The trio is now said to be residing in an enclosed refuge spanning over 2,000 acres at an unidentified location. The dire wolves are projected to mature at 130-to-150 pounds, while a typical gray wolf weighs around 80-to-100 pounds.
Although some “Game of Thrones” fans could have assumed that dire wolves are purely fictional, they were, in fact, a real species that once thrived across the Americas. Their extinction likely coincided with the disappearance of the large herbivores they depended on for survival.
More than 3,600 dire wolf fossils have also been unearthed at Los Angeles’ renowned La Brea Tar Pits, and the adjacent museum dedicates an entire wall to over 400 displayed dire wolf heads.
Additionally, Colossal previously announced that it plans to bring back the woolly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger, and the dodo bird from extinction — noting that its work on the dire wolf is proof of success in relation to the technology.
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