Welcome to the new world, made of the old world…
The latest edition of Time Magazine was just released and gracing the cover is “Remus”, the first dire wolf to exist in over 10,000 years.
Yes, dire wolves were actual creatures that lived on earth a long time ago. While many may know them only from Game of Thrones, these super predators are much larger, stronger, faster, and violent than the wolves of today, which are absolutely no slouches in their own right.
The article says dire wolves once roamed from Venezuela to Canada but went extinct over 10,000 years ago. However, DNA remained on the earth thanks to preserved carcasses, and a company call Colossal Biosciences is pulling a legit Jurassic Park by extracting those genes and making actual versions of creatures that once roamed all over this Earth, which is both incredible and extremely terrifying.
Using domestic dogs as surrogate mothers, Colossal scientists have created three dire wolves, Romulus and Remus (6 months old, already 4 feet long and 80 pounds) and Khaleesi (2 months old). Khaleesi is a great name by the way…
While the entire piece in Time is well worth the read, Colossal made a post on X giving the TL/DR of the process:
“The dire wolf has been extinct for over 10,000 years. These two wolves were brought back from extinction using genetic edits derived from a complete dire wolf genome, meticulously reconstructed by Colossal from ancient DNA found in fossils dating back 11,500 and 72,000 years.
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.” By achieving this, we continue to push forward our broader mission on—accepting humanity’s duty to restore Earth to a healthier state.”
Out of curiosity, I played the howling sounds to my dog, a 1 year old boxer/heeler/dobermann mix, and instantly she shot up from her mid-morning nap and began cowering in the corner of the couch.
Looks like the wild instincts haven’t been bred out of our dogs quite yet…
Played this for my dog and she cowered into the couch corner… those instincts aren't dead yet https://t.co/XPwK5JIApT pic.twitter.com/Qm3kjp9GEQ
— Andrew Mies (@andrew_mies) April 7, 2025
As you might expect, there’s a lot of opinions flying around regarding a species literally being brought out of a 10 millennia long extinction… My opinion? It’s undeniably cool and there are certainly a ton of great applications for the technology, such as saving modern species that may otherwise go extinct. Now, you can argue that this will make the argument for naturally conserving habitat and endangered animals hard to make. Why spend all that money to rebuild, why limit industry and economic opportunity to save whatever animal in the ways we’ve done before when we can just capture one, pull out the DNA, and start making a ton of new ones? Can easily see some big businesses arguing this when their profit margins are being hampered by those pesky environmentalists.
Also, it’s certainly a bit like playing God, which will forever make me nervous. Should we really be messing with animal creation and gene editing? The cat is out of the bag for the most part, but I believe we should still be caretakers, not creators, of the Earth and its resources.
Comments have been pouring in online about the reintroduction of the dire wolf, many referencing Jurassic Park, especially the iconic Dr. Malcomb quote about “if they should”… Here’s a few that caught my eye:
This is so cool but I have to post the Jeff Goldblum quote I’m sorry https://t.co/VlQxhufVmK pic.twitter.com/2b9IzZNtqg
— pjeffa (🦧,🦧) (@jeff82874662) April 7, 2025
winter is coming https://t.co/w8OllIS3p3 pic.twitter.com/PfZQObKUwn
— brentius (@brentius_) April 7, 2025
Looking forward to being mangled by a stray velociraptor while waiting my turn in the bread lines. https://t.co/bR3aLPO11s
— Tyler Austin Harper (@Tyler_A_Harper) April 7, 2025
https://t.co/uHSTRPK6E1 pic.twitter.com/jwctYH6lJA
— Greater Pennsylvania (@PennMaxxing) April 7, 2025
a new technology giving humans godlike power, ushered in by a vivified dire wolf — surely this not a foreboding sign of the consequences to come https://t.co/ajvgIrG71b
— Good Pyre (@GoodPyre) April 7, 2025
Without question, things are moving very, very quickly right now…
Whether this is good or bad is yet to be seen, but the company is not slowing down. They have plans to recreate wooly mammoths, thylacines, dodos, and other “forgotten” species.
The world never ceases to be absolutely, incredible, downright wild.
