After vanishing from the face of the earth over 12,000 years ago, the dire wolves are now living, breathing, and howling amongst us. The scientists at a company called Colossal Biosciences have performed a miracle, or in other words – de-extinction – a process which revives an extinct species. What ‘Game of Thrones’ made popular with ‘Lady’ and ‘Ghost’, they have now managed to turn it into a reality with 3 healthy dire wolves named Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi. While Romulus and Remus are two six-months old wolf pups, Khalessi is a 2-month old female pup.
What are Dire Wolves? What do they look like?
If we talk about their appearance, Dire Wolves are large-sized and have a dense coat of fur. A study by Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences had found that the genes of dire wolves led them to have a strong build, with possibly light or nearly-white fur, and unique features that made it a true “superwolf” of America. In fact, they are said to have been similar looking with today’s grey wolves and jackals.
The dire wolf are said to have lived during the Pleistocene Epoch, which lasted from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago, as per Britannica. It might be the most commonly found mammal preserved in the La Brea Tar Pits in southern California. They are said to have first appeared in the Americas. There’s no evidence they ever mixed with gray wolves, which came from Eurasia and later spread to North America.
Why did Dire Wolves go extinct?
According to Arctic Focus, many of the scientists agree that dire wolves primarily hunted large plant-eating animals, like horses, bison, and camels. However, many of these animals went extinct or drastically decreased in numbers in North America – this was nearly 13,000 years ago. This loss of prey likely led to the extinction of the dire wolf. Species like the gray wolves survived, probably because they are more adaptable as they can survive by eating a wider range of foods.
How did Colossal create the dire wolves?
Scientists at Colossal were able to study the genetic makeup of the dire wolves from their DNA, using advanced genetic techniques. A report in time.com explains that the scientists then rewrote the genetic code of the regular gray wolf to match the dire wolf’s DNA. To bring these animals to life, they used domestic dogs as surrogate mothers. This led to the birth of the three dire wolves. This is the first time in history that an extinct specie has been ‘brought back’ to life.
The founders of Colossal, made up of entrepreneurs and scientists, began the company in 2021. They studied ancient DNA to find the important genetic changes that made this extinct species different from its living relatives.
TIME reported that making the new dire wolves involved 20 edits in 14 genes of the regular gray wolf. These changes caused the wolves to look and behave differently. For example, Romulus and Remus got white fur, grew larger, developed stronger shoulders, had wider heads, bigger teeth and jaws, more muscular legs, and made sounds like howling and whining.