The Dire Wolf:
The dire wolf once roamed an American range that extended as far south as Venezuela and as far north as Canada, but not a single one has been seen in over 10,000 years, when the species went extinct. Plenty of dire wolf remains have been discovered across the Americas however.
THEIR 'Truth':
And that presented an opportunity for a company named Colossal Biosciences. Relying on deft genetic engineering and ancient, preserved DNA, Colossal scientists deciphered the dire wolf genome, rewrote the genetic code of the common gray wolf to match it, and, using domestic dogs as surrogate mothers, brought Romulus, Remus, and their sister, 2-month-old Khaleesi, into the world during three separate births last fall and this winter, effectively for the first time de-extincting a line of beasts whose live gene pool long ago vanished.
https://time.com/7274542/colossal-dire-wolf/
The Sad Lessons:
The Reality … Science + Opinion:
Despite what you are being fed, de-extinction is a con, full of gloss, bullshit and ghoulish greed.
Take a modern grey wolf. Add genes for a bulkier body, broader head, thicker fur, and prehistoric vibes. Grow that embryo in a dog surrogate. Boom, you’ve got Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi.
At six months old, Romulus and Remus already weigh over 80 pounds and are predicted to reach up to 6 feet long and 150 pounds as adults. 3-month old Khaleesi is catching up fast. The pups aren’t exactly friendly. Being wolves, and having mutations of a dire wolf, they’re said to be quiet in nature, avoid human contact, even be it the care givers. But even from afar, they’re truly a sight!
Technically, 99.9% of their DNA is still grey wolf, and that remaining 0.1% is what gives them their dire wolf features.
Let me be absolutely clear on this though: no matter how cute they are, this story is absolute bollocks. No amount of fancy pictures, cool legendary names (Romulus, Remus and one from Game of Thrones), or American-brand biotech TED-style glossy hubris can change this. I’m just going to list the ways that this vexes me, and should vex you too.
Here’s a fact: to date, one single animal, from one species has been brought back from extinction. It was the Pyrenean Ibex, the last of which, Celia, died in 2000. Cells were taken from her before she died, and then in 2003, using the same technique by which Dolly was cloned, a baby ibex was brought to term from a surrogate goat. This meant that the genome of the kid was near identical to that of the parent, and therefore unquestionably a member of the same species. The kid died soon after birth suffocating with ill-formed lungs, but it did live for a few minutes, making it the only species in the 4 billion year history of life on Earth to have gone extinct twice.
https://arutherford.substack.com/p/dire-wolves-remain-very-extinct
The two males at 6 months.
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