Through genetic engineering, scientists have brought back the dire wolf, a species that went extinct over 12,500 years ago. Rumulus and Remus are the names of the two puppies that have captivated the scientific community. Even though they are only six months old, they already weigh more than 36 kg and are almost four feet tall. According to a CNN story, the Texas-based Colossal Biosciences, the business responsible for their resurrection, claimed to have produced the dire wolf pups through the use of gene editing, cloning, and ancient DNA. The HBO series “Game of Thrones” popularized the dire wolf.
The gray wolf, its closest living relative, provided the scientists with its DNA. Once roaming North America, the dire wolf was a top predator. They are bigger than gray wolves, and their jaws are tougher and their fur is a little thicker.
George Church, a co-founder of Colossal and a genetics professor at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told Time Magazine, “We think it is a game changer that we could just take a vial of blood, isolate EPCs, culture them, and clone from them, and they have a pretty high cloning efficiency.”
Billionaire Elon Musk reacted to the news, posting his own Wishlist. “Please make a miniature pet wooly mammoth,” Musk posted on X while resharing his post.
After their birth, the pups were fed from a surrogate for a few days, after which the Colossal team started feeding them from the bottle. They are now living as healthy young dire wolves, said the company.
However, the pups’ behaviour is different from other existing wolf species. As per Time, the exuberance that puppies exhibit in the presence of humans is completely absent. Romulus and Remus keep their distance and retreat as a person approaches. Even one of the handlers, who has raised them from birth, can get only so close before the pups flinch.
The behaviour is said to be typical of dire wolves – they want to be lonely.
One of the species that Colossal intends to bring back to life is this one. The Tasmanian tiger, mammoth, and dodo are others, albeit their other endeavors have not been entirely successful. The scientists, however, have hope.
Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal, said in a news release, “This enormous milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works.” “Our team created healthy dire wolf puppies using DNA from a 72,000-year-old skull and a 13,000-year-old tooth.”
On a 2,000-acre property surrounded by fencing 10 feet high, the dire wolves reside. Security guards, drones, and live video feeds keep an eye on them.
A total of three pups were brought back to life: a girl born on January 30, 2025, and two boys born on October 1, 2024.
