04/14/2025

The Science behind the Return of the Dire Wolf

It could mean the end of extinction

Nature gave the world the dire wolf 2.6 million years ago, and then, through the hard hand of extinction, took it away—some 10,000 to 13,000 years ago when the last of the species died out. Now, the dire wolf is back, brought bounding into the 21st century by Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based biotech company. On April 8, Colossal announced it had used both cloning and gene-editing based on two ancient samples of dire wolf DNA to birth three pups, the six-month-old males Romulus and Remus and the two-month-old female Khaleesi.

"Our team took DNA from a 13,000 year old tooth and a 72,000 year old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies," said Colossal CEO Ben Lamm in a statement that accompanied the announcement of the births. "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."

So what, exactly, does that work involve?

Please select this link to read the complete article from TIME.