Has the Dire Wolf Truly Been Resurrected? We Asked the Experts

The single splashiest bit of science news so far this year arrived earlier this week, when Colossal Biosciences announced that its scientists successfully brought back a version of the dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus). In the company’s announcement, Colossal has claimed that its three “dire wolf” siblings, Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi, are the world’s first examples of de-extinction. But not everyone is on board with that assertion. The wolves were created by genetically editing the DNA of gray wolf cells to more closely resemble that of a dire wolf; this edited DNA then served as the basis for embryos implanted in surrogate dogs. Colossal has argued that these edits—20 in total—were enough to produce wolves that are phenotypically (physically or visibly) similar to the dire wolves that once roamed the Americas tens of thousands of years ago—an approach the company calls “functional de-extinction.” But at least some outside researchers aren’t so sure, arguing that these edits are far too ... Read full article.