The Dire Wolf is Back...Maybe

Three new babies have gotten a lot of attention – which happens when you attempt to bring back the dead! Colossal Biosciences is a biotech company that has recreated the extinct dire wolf and cloned three puppies. The company’s mission is the de-extinction of megafauna.   According to the World Animal Foundation, half of all animal species on Earth could become extinct by 2050.  

The company’s solution to this loss of biodiversity is to use advanced gene editing to rebuild or preserve DNA and genomes of extinct animals, ensuring they can thrive while facing climate change, dwindling resources, disease, and human interference.  In bringing back the dire wolf, which went extinct 13,000 years ago, the company sequenced the dire wolf’s complete DNA from fossils. 

That was compared to its closest living cousins, the physically smaller gray wolf. Next, using CRISPR technology, they edited the gray wolf’s genome to change its facial features, coat characteristics, and body size to represent the ancient dire wolf. 

Those cells were cloned and fertilized in vitro to produce embryos that were implanted in surrogate dog mothers to produce the three hybrid puppies. Critics charge correctly that these are not dire wolves but a grey wolf with several dire wolf genes. So, these are not true de-extinctions.   But they are innovative synthetic creations and could pave the way for recreating the real thing.  It would be a Herculean task, but may one day help preserve the animals we have left.