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This is not a Dire Wolf. Or De-extinction. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-04-07

The Internet is abuzz with the story that the Colossal Biosciences company has “de-extincted” the Dire Wolf, an animal that went extinct about 10,000 years ago.

Did Colossal Biosciences actually revive the extinct dire wolf, shades of Jurassic Park? Or is it just PR and sensationalism?

Time and The New Yorker were given exclusive access to the animals ahead of the announcement and they both wrote detailed glowing reports.

Colossal Biosciences has been making tall claims as part of the PR blitz -

The dire wolf once roamed an American range that extended as far south as Venezuela and as far north as Canada, before they disappeared about 10,000 years. Plenty of dire wolf remains have been discovered across the Americas, from which Colossal Biosciences has been able to extract and decode DNA fragments and sequences. Colossal scientists deciphered the dire wolf genome, inserted certain gene sequences into the genetic code of the common gray wolf using CRISPR technology, and used domestic dogs as surrogate mothers. The 3 pups named Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi, were born separately last fall and this winter. x — Ars Technica (@arstechnica.com) 2025-04-07T19:36:55.688044Z

arstechnica.com/... clarifies that the cute-looking pups are really clones of gray wolves with 20 areas in 14 genes edited with sequences from the dire wolf. Some of the changes used sequences from larger gray wolves to help make the animals grow bigger. A similar thing was done to achieve the light coat color.

Nevertheless, the information that the company has released indicates that it was focused on recapitulating the appearance of a dire wolf, with an emphasis on large size and a white coat. For example, the researchers edited in a gene variant that's found in gray wolf populations that are physically large, rather than the variant found in the dire wolf genome. A similar thing was done to achieve the light coat color. This is a cautious approach, as these changes are already known to be compatible with the rest of the gray wolf's genome.

Other subject matter experts have similar reactions.

Article at www.scientificamerican.com/...

Also, there is research supporting the idea that Dire Wolves are not even related to gray wolves.

From archive.is/…

Preliminary genetic analyses indicated that dire and gray wolves were not close relatives. Researchers found that the animals belonged to a much older lineage of dogs. Dire wolves, it now appeared, had evolved in the Americas and had no close kinship with the gray wolves from Eurasia; the last time gray wolves and dire wolves shared a common ancestor was about 5.7 million years ago. The strong resemblance between the two, the researchers say, is a case of convergent evolution, whereby different species develop similar adaptations—or even appearances—thanks to a similar way of life. These predators became specialized in hunting camels, horses, bison and other herbivores in North America over millions of years. As those prey sources disappeared, so did the dire wolves.

How not to save earth’s biodiversity

According to time.com/…, Colossal’s rationale for this research is -

Colossal claims that the same techniques it uses to summon back species from the dead could prevent existing but endangered animals from slipping into extinction themselves. What they learn restoring the mammoth, they say, could help them engineer more robust elephants that can better survive the climatic ravages of a warming world. Bring back the thylacine and you might help preserve the related marsupial known as the quoll. Techniques learned restoring the dire wolf can similarly be used to support the endangered red wolf.

This smacks of another excuse to let humans destroy ecosystems and use technology to “preserve” animals in zoos and parks. It’s another example of the colossal waste of technology and skills that could be put to better use.

We're in the midst of the Earth’s sixth mass extinction crisis. Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson estimated that 30,000 species per year (or three species per hour) are being driven to extinction. www.biologicaldiversity.org/…

The trump administration has rolled back environmental safeguards around future logging projects on more than half of U.S. national forests . apnews.com/...

“We will drill, baby, drill,” Trump said in his inauguration speech, followed by rollback of regulations on the oil and gas sector. www.theguardian.com/...

All U.S. govt. research on climate change has been halted. www.theguardian.com/...

Data centers with AI workloads could account for up to 21% of overall global energy demand by 2030 — mitsloan.mit.edu/…

Need more examples?

Epilogue

The fact that the CEO of Texas-based Colossal Biosciences, serial entrepreneur and billionaire Ben Lamm, did a podcast with joe rogan, whose tweet along with a tweet from elon musk is featured prominently on the company's X/twitter site says a lot about the folks behind the company and perhaps its target audience.

So, is this a de-extincted dire wolf or a GMO that looks like one? Or yet another toy for the billionaire tech-bro club? Or much ado about nothing?

Or is this a distraction from the real work needed to reduce our carbon footprint, preserve and expand ecosystems and stop the unnatural extinction of species, including our own?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/7/2315241/-That-is-not-a-Dire-Wolf?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

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