By Joyce A. Shelton, Ph.D.
The dire wolf has been the movie star of the media scene in recent days. Colossal Biosciences, a private US biotech company, has claimed in a jaw-dropping press release to have brought back into existence an ancient animal that has been extinct for centuries. The dire wolf was recently popularized in the sci-fi/fantasy series, Game of Thrones. G of T author, George R.R. Martin, and other celebrities are donors to Colossal Biosciences. Colossal says they have “de-extincted” the dire wolf using genetic technology. They isolated and sequenced some fragments of dire wolf DNA from a fossil tooth and skull. They then selected 14 genes affecting 20 traits that they felt best characterized possible dire wolf distinctives. They used CRISPR technology to edit these genes into the genome of the present-day gray wolf and followed with somatic cell nuclear transfer (cloning) to insert the edited DNA into the enucleated embryos of a large domestic dog. The researchers transferred approximately 135 genetically modified embryos into surrogate dogs. Only three of these embryos resulted in live pups, two males and a female.
Their innovative use of genetic technology notwithstanding, Colossal’s “breakthrough” lacks both scientific and moral credibility. For starters, they announced their achievement through the popular press accompanied by pictures of cute, fuzzy white “dire wolf” puppies. It delighted sci-fi fans, charmed the general public, and duly impressed their donors. It was received with considerably less enthusiasm, numerous questions, and outright skepticism by the scientific community and other serious thinkers. There has been no published scientific journal article detailing their work, meaning it has not been reviewed and analyzed by scientific peers. As one scientist, Evelyn Brister put it, “It sounds like the dire wolf is kind of a publicity stunt. Partly because we understand canine genetics well and also because of Game of Thrones.” Thus, we are left with only their sensationalized claims. These are summarized in a statement on the Colossal Biosciences website, which, on its own, generates some serious concerns:
On October 1, 2024, for the first time in human history, Colossal successfully restored a once-eradicated species through the science of de-extinction. After a 10,000+ year absence, our team is proud to return the dire wolf to its rightful place in the ecosystem. Colossal’s innovations in science, technology and conservation made it possible to accomplish something that’s never been done before: the revival of a species from its longstanding population of zero.
Colossal claims it has “successfully restored a once-eradicated species” (the dire wolf). The problem is that the creatures they produced are not actually dire wolves or even a reasonable facsimile. They are essentially gray wolves with a few edited genes. According to paleontologist, Nic Rawlence, “The gray wolf genome is 2,447,000,000 individual (DNA) bases long. Colossal has said that the gray wolf and dire wolf genomes are 99.5% identical, but that is still 12,235,000 individual differences. So a gray wolf with 20 edits to 14 genes, even if these are key differences, is still very much a gray wolf.” Their claim is not only highly questionable, but it prompts one to speculate with trepidation where the next steps in such unbounded research might lead. Will a shaggy elephant be designated a restored wooly mammoth? Will a chicken with a funny beak be declared a dodo bird? Will a baboon with a handful of human genes be called… what? These creatures are not resurrected species, they are hybrid monsters made possible through genetic manipulation. Furthermore, because no one can predict how the inserted genes will interact with others in the genome or with the environmental influences they will encounter, there may yet be unintended consequences.
What was Colossal’s goal in bringing back the dire wolf? Their self-congratulatory assertion, “Our team is proud to return the dire wolf to its rightful place in the ecosystem”, is at best perplexing and not practically achievable. These ancient, large, wolf-like creatures lived during the Ice Age. The prevailing theory is that they died out because they were adapted to eat large prehistoric animals. When rapid environmental changes killed off their prey, they were also eliminated, while the smaller gray wolf survived. The dire wolf’s ecosystem no longer exists. It’s unlikely it can ever be safely or sensibly re-introduced into the present-day environment. Perhaps, as some environmentalists have suggested, for real biological impact, they should concentrate on rescuing endangered species rather than restoring those already long extinct.
So what is Colossal’s real purpose? In their words, Colossal’s “innovations …made it possible to accomplish something that’s never been done before…” Most scientists practicing responsible, rational, significant but not showy research live under the constant fear of losing their hard-won funding. Conversely, well-financed private research companies like Colossal Biosciences are not obligated to do research with a practical or even reasonably justifiable scientific purpose. External oversight regarding ethical considerations and the need to exercise caution in light of potentially dangerous consequences is not required for private research companies. Instead, they have the freedom and can afford to pursue projects that lead to splashy, newsworthy outcomes and more money. Colossal professes to be concerned with conservation, saving species from extinction, and perhaps some good may eventually come from the application of their processes. But, for now, it appears that they mainly desire to be legendary, the “first ever” to create something new. They, along with their sci-fi fans, should forget Game of Thrones and re-visit the dire warnings in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Hint: hubris-driven experiments do not turn out well.
Image above: AI-generated image of an influencer taking a selfie with a Dire Wolf — Origin: Adobe Stock