Colossal Biosciences has been chasing de-extinction since its founding in 2021, and with their latest discovery, they appear to have accomplished their task.
The Dallas-based startup announced Monday the birth of three dire wolves, an extinct species of wolf popularized by HBO’s hit show Game of Thrones.
Once full grown, the strikingly white wolves will be taller and more muscular than their close extant relatives, gray wolves, with particular adaptations for cold weather hunting.
“Taking a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 73,000-year-old skull and making puppies is like a little bit of magic,” said CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm.
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Related:How Colossal Biosciences is turning de-extinction from sci-fi to reality here in Dallas
Colossal has three primary projects ― the woolly mammoth, the dodo bird, and the Tasmanian tiger ― that have seen major breakthroughs recently, including last month’s “woolly mice.”
However, the company kept the dire wolves under wraps, until they crossed the finish line first.
“I know this sounds a little weird, but it kind of just happened,” Lamm said.
Eighteen months after starting the project, Colossal had puppies. Remus and Romulus were born Oct. 1, 2024. Khaleesi was born Jan. 30.
During the process, Colossal also developed a non-invasive blood cloning method that it used to birth two litters of the highly endangered red wolf.
‘Much more straightforward’
Chief science officer Beth Shapiro explained there are a few reasons why the species was a logical first choice to resurrect, using Colossal’s systems-based, gene editing de-extinction approach.
Dire wolves share 99.5% of their DNA with gray wolves, she said, and are phenotypically similar. And mountains of genomic research point to a particular descendent of the gray wolf: man’s best friend, the dog.
“So it was much more straightforward for us to identify exactly what it was that we needed to alter in a gray wolf to bring back the dire wolf … [and] to be able to understand what is going to happen when we edit the DNA sequence,” Shapiro said.
“Also we can then really explore what the impacts of those edits are going to be.”
The story of the dire wolf actually started a few years ago. Colossal is currently valued around $10 billion, and backed by celebrity investors like Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and NFL legend Tom Brady. The company received additional capital, Lamm said, and began considering what else the company could do using it.
“We still have an ethical framework when we look at these species right, of what has an ecological function? What can we pair with a critically endangered species? What’s the purpose of doing it? How will the public and the culture care about it?” Lamm said.
“So we really wanted to go through a very robust process to decide even what is a potential candidate.”
Colossal landed on the dire wolf, and a few others, as candidates for de-extinction, but didn’t make a final decision.
As it happened, Lamm and chief animal officer Matt James were visiting the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, a federally recognized Native American nation in North Dakota a few months later in early summer 2023 for an update on a buffalo and bison project.
During the visit, the nation’s chairman, Mark Fox, told them of the cultural significance of the wolf and gave them a piece of advice: do more American animals.
“[The dire wolf] is an American animal, and we’re an American company. We feel really strongly about that, our heritage here,” Lamm said.
Later visits with Colossal’s Native American partners in North Carolina also highlighted the importance of wolves. The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park is often touted as one of the biggest recent successes in ecological restoration. The wolf occupies a huge space in the cultural consciousness, from Teen Wolf to Game of Thrones,’ and beyond.
“We can do something that helps and supports the indigenous people groups that are excited about our work,” Lamm said.
“We can also do something that inspires kids and folks .. and bring awareness to wolf conservation. Oh, and we can build technology to help save wolves. So it kind of became this perfect project.”
An adolescent red wolf, which was cloned as part of Colossal Biosciences’ dire wolf de-extinction project.(Courtesy of Colossal)
Colossal’s wolves will live on a 2,000-acre secure preserve in the northern part of the U.S. The preserve, enclosed by 9-foot-tall, zoo-grade fencing, is staffed by a full-time care team and an on-site veterinarian and features a dedicated animal hospital, an area for study, a storm shelter and a natural den for the wolves.
“Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi, these animals would never be sent into the wild,” said James, who previously worked as the senior director of animal care at the Dallas Zoo. “They’ll always live on this sort of controlled semi-wild preserve.”
However, if de-extinct animals are to help with conservation, as Colossal states is its goal, they will one day need to live in the wild. That takes multiple generations of animals, each receiving less and less human intervention.
“In the future,” James said of the dire wolves, “if [rewilding] were the goal — and with what we’re doing with the red wolves, that’s certainly how we’ll manage them — is this step-wise removal of human intervention to try to retrain wild behaviors.”
