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After thousands of years they have birthed three dire wolves through DNA and a wolf that was like 98% related. They hope to soon bring back the woolly mammoth. The dire wolves are named Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi.

I think its pretty cool but am a bit concerned they will bring back dinosaurs. Guess I've seen too much Jurassic Park .... hahahaha

(https://myind.net/sites/default/files/field/image/68579166_whatsapp_image_2025-04-08_at_16.32.53_154aa391.jpg)




Read more at: https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/world/dire-wolf-extinct-for-years-brought-back-to-life-using-ancient-dna-and-modern-science-1.10493225



https://abcnews.go.com/US/dire-wolf-revived-biotech-companys-de-extinction-process/story?id=120558562

The question is whether a Gray Wolf is really that similar to a Dire Wolf. Their DNA might be nearly identical, but that doesn't necessarily mean the 2 species are nearly identical. According to some scientists what they have is not a Dire Wolf but a modified Gray Wolf that looks like a Dire Wolf. Whether or not that's really a Dire Wolf is speculation.

That discussion made it to the news here Down Under:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-08/dire-wolves-de-extincted-claim-questioned-scientists/105149948

There's always been an interest here in this sort of thing, mainly because of the prospect bringing back the Thylacine (aka Tasmanian Tiger) back from extinction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine

Your scientists were so preoccupied by whether they could they never consider if they should.

Not a fan of this.

Why is that Phish?

If they can bring a tiger back it will be much more convincing than this dire wolf hybrid which is cool but I’m not sure if it’s truly a dw

Lets see how big they get. Male dire wolves are about  68 kg (150 lb) and are much taller than our current wolves.

(https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/8b60651c-472c-4d29-91b0-f4bcde2723f1/de245b0-01b42527-20bb-4d59-b465-5559b14e8987.jpg/v1/fill/w_998,h_800,q_70,strp/gray_and_dire_wolf_size_by_bonnerscar_de245b0-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9ODIxIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvOGI2MDY1MWMtNDcyYy00ZDI5LTkxYjAtZjRiY2RlMjcyM2YxXC9kZTI0NWIwLTAxYjQyNTI3LTIwYmItNGQ1OS1iNDY1LTU1NTliMTRlODk4Ny5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTAyNCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.855NDEvy5H4hQDweEbxCcos64_J0Xx1V3i3DAHb0uN4)

Agreed, it will be interesting to see if they grow up ok and with no health issues and sometimes happens with genetic engineering.

If we can bring back extinct animals or stabilizie threatened animal species I am all for this.

It is playing God in my opinion. As Hoodie said just because we can do something doesn't mean we should. I liken this to the advances scientists will be trying with AI. As I like to say, I've seen both these movies and I don't like how they turn out.

You know that's a quote from Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3j9muCo4o0), right?

I get it. I just don't see an issue with something like this. If they were bringing back a t-rex or pterodactyl l I might have concerns.

If we were bringing back something that recent human activity had caused to go extinct, I would be cool with it.  But bringing back a long since extinct species serves no benefit. 

This is by its very definition an invasive species in any modern day habitat.  If it was released or escaped into the wild it would be a menace to livestock and natural prey and would likely kill off other endangered wolves.  Plus they are large enough that humans would be their prey.  And those are the obvious consequences this will undoubtedly have unknown unintended consequences.  Any time we bioengineering there are unintended consequences.  I generally support progress because often the intended positive benefits outweigh the risk of the negative consequences.  But in this case there is no benefit and huge easily forseeable risk. 

I am torn about stuff like this.

I'm 100% behind bringing back species that we have killed off due to human recklessness.

Even in other species that were gone before us -- it's playing God?  Who cares?  We genetically create new species all time time with selective breeding -- we combine elements of jellyfish with aquarium fish to make new species.  This is just another version of that.  I would argue that when someone says it's not natural -- humans and our involvement is natural.

I don't think we should be releasing T-Rex into the breeding population, but for starters, bringing back the Tasmanian tiger or something -- I got no beef with it.

I didn't. I saw the movie over 20 years ago and don't think I ever revisited it for a second viewing.

I care Dave. And to clarify in case anyone doesn't know, I don't reference playing God in a religious way. That isn't my thing. I just don't see any practical usage of doing this. It feels like someone with plenty of intelligence just doing something for themselves and to get a pat on the back rather than using their gifts to actually address a problem. It seems self serving.

We just brought back a predator who can easily kill a human and whose natural food sources no longer exist, the movie will be the evening news.

These things will only exist in small amounts and either on preserves or in captivity.  I know what Jurassic Park warned about ( it’s my favorite movie and Malcolm is among my favorite characters)

But I’m not too worried about this

I wish they’d focus on say saving Condors or Snow Leopars but alas

I'm holding out for a saber-toothed tiger...they're fucking adorable as kittens.

Cool, but this has almost nothing to do with a Dire Wolf. They basically took a Gray Wolf, which according to the latest published science, split from the Dire Wolf something like 5 million years ago and genetically modified it by making about 15 edits (sources conflict a bit, somewhere between 14 and 20). Not all of those edits inserted DNA from the Dire Wolf. For instance, Colossal (the company behind it) chose to use Gray Wolf genes coding for large size and white fur - the latter of which is almost certainly not the color that Dire Wolves sported, but rather a Game of Thrones adaptation.

So what we have is effectively a designer Gray Wolf, but tiny amounts of Dire Wolf DNA inserted. Cool, but nothing like a Dire Wolf.

Colossal claims to have evidence that the Gray Wolf is the closest living relative to a Dire Wolf, but published research contends otherwise. Until Colossal actually publish their proof, it's hard not to consider that they chose the Gray Wolf mostly for looks and cool-factor.

Technically, if a Dire Wolf is 98% identical to a Gray Wolf, this designer edition is maybe 98.1%. And while 98% may sound close, that's also roughly how close humans are to chimps.

+1, Jeff Goldblum


Nature chose them for extinction.

A lot less dangerous too, and there's more of a moral argument in this case to attempt it.

Before European settlement they were the apex predators in Tasmania - they were originally on the mainland and other islands, but increased competition from Dingoes/wild dogs had already culled their numbers elsewhere, and the last ones were in Tassie. Despite their status as an apex predator, their prey was primarily small rodents, mammals and marsupials, a lot smaller in size than you would expect.

It was already a small population that would struggle to compete with introduced foxes, cats, feral dogs and pigs, but they wrongly had a reputation for killing farmers' sheep and chickens - a bounty was introduced, and they were culled to extinction. They were wiped out directly because of European settlement - ironically it's one of the few predators in Australia that would have close to no chance of killing a human.