Many scientists have claimed that too many people are focused on the climate crisis when they should be focusing on the biodiversity of the animals of today.
Biologists believe that 50 percent of our species will be facing extinction by 2050.
So why not try to fix this problem? Well, Colossal has done just that!… or supposedly.
Colossal, founded by George Church and Ben Lamm, is trying to de-extinct many extinct species, including, but not limited to, the wooly mammoth, the dodo bird, and the dire wolf.
In late 2024, Remus and Romulus were born, and in January of 2025, Khaleesi was born.
These are the three living dire wolf puppies that Colossal has introduced to the world in early April of 2025.
Colossal’s Chief Science Officer, Beth Shapiro, along with their team of scientists, have been working to de-extinct animals since 2021.
But how on earth did they bring an animal back from the dead?
Well, in simple terms, with the extraction of the dire wolf DNA from the fossil remains (from supposedly 50,000 years ago), they matched it to the living relative, the gray wolf.
They discovered that by altering only 14 genes in the gray wolf’s DNA that they could replicate the once extinct dire wolf.
The DNA was then inserted into 45 embryos into eight surrogate dogs; these, of course, grew into the three remaining puppies that were introduced by Colossal.
They seemed to have created a perfect replication of the extinct dire wolf.
Although the gray wolf, which does share many similarities with the extinct dire wolf, is based on lineage, there may have been a closer contender.
The original ancestor of the species Canis would have evolved from a canid that lived about 6 million years ago.
This original ancestor is formally known as the Eucyon davisi, which evolved into more modern canines like the Canis lupus.
So, where did the dire wolf come from exactly?
Well, in 2021, scientists took a deep dive into what the dire wolf really was based on the information that they were able to uncover.
The dire wolf was discovered to have lived about 13,000– 50,000 years ago.
Although their most recent ancestor within the canine family was around 6 million years ago, they are still able to make connections to the most modern canine relatives.
In the newest scientific breakthrough, where the dire wolf was ‘brought back to life, they used gray wolf DNA.
Colossal has provided evidence towards the fact that the gray wolf could be the dire wolf’s living relative due to the similar DNA.
However, it was discovered that the dire wolf actually shares a closer origin to the African/ South American Jackal.
The reasoning for the mishap in the idea that the dire wolf was more related to the gray wolf could be due to the fact that they shared many similarities in their living conditions, which resulted in similar DNA
Meaning that the dire wolf was probably more likely to have looked like a huge jackal, not a huge wolf.
Now there are three subspecies of the jackal: the black-backed jackal, the side-striped jackal, and the golden jackal.
It was discovered that the most likely relation to the dire wolf would have been the side-striped jackal, which had diverged from the golden jackal about 600,000 years ago.
Similarly enough (to the Jackal), the dire wolf was native to areas like North and South America.
All of this information has intertwined to make a very complicated answer, which we will hopefully be able to unpack to a clear understanding in the future.
This begs the question: is this really a dire wolf or just a mutated gray wolf?
Although this fascinating development is extraordinary, it may not be what it seems to be.
Although this is a huge advancement in science all over the world, this may not really be the type of advancement that we needed.
There are many animals that are on the verge of extinction: pandas, tigers, turtles, gorillas, axolotls, and so many more.
However, the Amur Leopard is the most endangered species of them all, with only 100 remaining in the wild and ~260 in captivity.
The list of species never ends; there are approximately 16,000 species that are endangered, and 19 alone in Idaho.
So it is upsetting to many future scientists (and people already involved in this career) that they are bringing back something that is already dead instead of protecting the ones that still exist, at least for now.
However, many have created a claim for why this project could be incredibly helpful to fully understand the world that we live in today.
It helps us to unlock the secrets that are now, or once, hidden by layers of rock, water, or earth.
All animals are very important to the ecosystem, each species arranges themselves in a way of balance that allows them to flow fluently.
When animals go extinct, it creates an instability within the ecosystem, so why not strengthen it?
The overall idea of de-extinction, which Colossal is trying to do, is to solve this imbalance that was created by extinction.
“I think it is cool to see these advances in science, and I would caution people not to be afraid of science just because it is new territory,” Joshua Ballard said. “So encourage people to be open-minded and think about the good possibilities that might come out of it.”
However, there comes the issue that by bringing back the dire wolf into the modernized version of its old ecosystem, it shifts the ecosystem just as much or more than extinction.
However, unknown to many, scientists have succeeded with a very similar situation to this one.
In 1980, a species native to the south-central United States (U.S.) was declared extinct in the wild, so to solve this issue, scientists worked for years to breed and care for the remaining Red Wolves.
In 1987, the red wolf species was successfully reintroduced to southern California to rectify the shifted environment.
Although our world has been modernized since the time the dire wolf went extinct, Colossal’s trying to reinsert the dire wolf into the ecosystem could be for the greater good.
Even if they are non reintroduced, the spot as predator that the dire wolves once held is being fulfilled by all canines alike, especially the gray wolves.
Just like a reintroduction of a species, a de-extinction can have a very similar impact on the ecosystems and restore them to their former glory.
Although this ‘dire wolf’ that scientists created may not be the dire wolf that lived thousands of years ago, they were able to replicate a version of that species to begin to study the way the world once was.
No matter how much we think we know about the world, it is never fully discovered.
So, while the scientists at Colossal may not have done what they have claimed to have done, in the end, is it all bad?
