"Jurassic Park” became a bestselling book and hit movie precisely because while its premise—that we could bring back the dinosaurs—was not possible at the time, readers and viewers knew that it would likely be achievable in the not-too-distant future due to scientific advances and breakthroughs in our study of DNA.
One company has said that the day has now arrived and that they’ve brought back to life a species that has been gone from the planet for thousands of years—the dire wolf, the larger version of today’s wolves that were made popular in the “Game of Thrones” universe.
When you read the fine print, you see that the company—Colossal Biosciences—didn’t actually bring back a 100 percent authentic dire wolf, but it is arguably pretty close:
In 2021, a separate team of scientists managed to retrieve DNA from the fossils of dire wolves, which went extinct about 13,000 years ago. With the discovery of additional DNA, the Colossal researchers have now edited 20 genes of gray wolves to imbue the animals with key features of dire wolves. They then created embryos from the edited gray-wolf cells, implanted them in surrogate dog mothers and waited for them to give birth.
The result is three healthy wolves — two males that are 6 months old and one female that is 2 months old, named Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi — that have some traits of dire wolves.
They should grow up to be quite large, but for now, they’re pretty darn cute:
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Although certainly intimidating and dangerous, according to what we know about them, dire wolves are nevertheless related to smaller species that are still around to this day.
Dire wolves turned out to belong to the same lineage that gave rise to the wolves, jackals and African wild dogs living today. The dire wolf split off from the main branch about 4.5 million years ago. Subsequently, about 2.6 million years ago, dire wolves interbred with other species, including the ancestors of today’s gray wolves and coyotes.
The company celebrated their achievement on social media, writing:
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.
The obvious questions become: how far should humans take this? Are we playing God with this kind of thing? Who will regulate what species can be “de-extincted,” or will it all just become a free-for-all and you’ll soon be seeing wooly mammoths wandering around your neighborhood?
Scientist Ian Malcolm (played by the inimitable Jeff Goldblum) asked the crucial question in the first “Jurassic Park” movie:
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could—they didn't stop to think if they should.”
It’s a potentially very slippery slope. While proponents of the technology argue that it could be used to help current endangered species from going extinct, there are so many other ways it could be used—like bringing back the megalodon.
I vote we don’t do that.
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