Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin isn’t the only person whose imagination was captured by dire wolves, in his books massive and ferocious war beasts. But now, the prehistoric species called dire wolves, thought to have died out in North America 4,000 years ago, are back in the real world, thanks to Colossal Biosciences work the company touts as the world’s first successful de-extinction effort.
“It is a surreal moment to see the world’s first extinct species come back,” said Colossal CEO Ben Lamm. “I still get chills right now. Then I got to bottle feed them.”
Colossal’s many investors now include Martin, Lamm said, and has as “cultural advisors” Game of Thrones stars Sophie Turner and Kit Harrington. Numerous other notable entertainment figures are also investors, including Oscar winners Peter Jackson and wife/collaborator Fran Walsh (Lord of the Rings), former top Amazon executive Jeff Wilke, former Legendary Entertainment CEO Thomas Tull, former NFL quarterback Tom Brady, Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, and Ultima video game pioneer Richard Garriott. A recent $200 million investment round valued the company at more than $10 billion.
U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a former governor of South Dakota, issued a statement about the de-extinction effort on X, saying the department was “excited about the potential of de-extinction technology,” and how it might strengthen biodiversity efforts and help other endangered species.
“It’s time to fundamentally change how we think about species conservation,” the statement says. “Going forward, we must celebrate removals from the endangered list – not additions. The only thing we’d like to see go extinct is the need for an endangered species list to exist.”
Colossal is also working on de-extinction efforts for several other extinct species, including the woolly mammoth and thylacine. But the dire wolf revival came from its work helping preserve several critically endangered existing species, including the Northern white rhinoceros, numerous bird species and North Carolina’s red wolf packs. The red wolf work, which has led to the creation of three new genetic lines for the species’ existing 10, actually led to the dire wolf de-extinction, Lamm said.
The company extracted DNA and built genomes from fossilized dire wolf teeth from 13,000 and around 70,000 years ago. Comparing the two genomes allowed scientists to understand how the species evolved over an extended period.
“We’re learning a lot,” Lamm said. “I think we’ll end up building many species.”
Colossal also figured out a far less invasive and painful way to harvest cells from a living animal to clone more versions of it. A simple blood draw is used to isolate and extract endothelial progenitor cells, which can then be cultured into an embryo and implanted in vitro in a host mother from a related species. In the dire wolf pups’ case, embryos built from extracted DNA were implanted in a large domestic hound host mother.
“We think we can use (the endothelial extraction process) on any mammalian species,” Lamm said. “It’s really, really great. It’s significantly better for the animals. Now we not only are bringing back genetic diversity for red wolves, but we also been able to de-extinction the dire wolf.”
At five months, the first two pups, named after the legendarily wolf-raised founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, are about 80 lbs. each, 25% bigger than a gray wolf of the same age. They’re expected to keep growing for another nine months to a year, Lamm said. The first female, named Khaleesi after the warrior queen from Martin’s best-selling books and hit TV adaptation, was born more recently and is about three months old.
“What we know about the dire wolf is that it is bigger, stronger, with a slightly bigger jaw and head, taller, wider, and with bone density that suggested it carried more muscle,” said Lamm. “What we didn’t know was the color.”
It’s white, with a hint of a mane at the shoulders. The pups also have a longer, more fox-like tail. The animals are housed at a secure, 2,000-acre compound whose location Lamm declined to release. Video of the animals and other information suggests an area with significant snow, forests and mountainous areas.
The dire wolf work began in what Lamm called a “weirdly spiritual journey,” after visits at the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA) reservation in North Dakota. The company is doing genomics research on bison herds, formerly hunted by the MHA tribes, one of several the company has been providing with free access to the genetic research.
While there, tribal elders told Lamm he should think about “bringing back the Great Wolf,” a bigger, stronger cousin of the gray wolf that occupied a central role in oral spiritual beliefs of the tribe and others. The Great Wolf may have actually been dire wolves, Lamm said.
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