Scientists bring back the dire wolf!
A company in Texas called Colossal Biosciences has brought back a kind of wolf that died out 12,500 years ago. This wolf is called the dire wolf. Long ago, it hunted big animals like bison, horses, and maybe even mammoths.
The company is also trying to bring back other extinct animals, like the Woolly mammoth, the Dodo, and the Tasmanian tiger. They recently made some “woolly mice” as a step towards bringing back the Woolly mammoth.
Now, the company says that the dire wolf is the world’s first extinct animal to come back.
How did they do it?
Colossal used DNA from very old bones — one tooth that is 13,000 years old and one skull that is 72,000 years old. They made three dire wolf puppies. Their names are Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi.
They looked at the DNA of animals related to the family of dire wolves that are alive today, like gray wolves, jackals, and foxes. Then they found the special genes that gave dire wolves their white coats and thick fur.
They used this information to make 20 small changes in the DNA of a gray wolf — the closest living relative of the dire wolf. Then, they used this DNA to make baby dire wolves.
These puppies are still 99.9% gray wolves, but they look and sound like dire wolves. This makes some people ask: Are they really dire wolves or just gray wolves that look different?
Some scientists say the old DNA is not good enough for cloning. Others say dire wolves and gray wolves are not really close relatives.
The company says they don’t want to make exact copies. They want to make animals that look and live like dire wolves.
Why is this useful?
The company says this kind of science can help animals that are in danger of extinction. They can fix their bad genes and help animals survive better.
The company also used this science to help make more red wolves, which are one of the world’s most endangered wolf types.
But there are problems. Genetically changed animals can sometimes be dangerous to the environment. Also, cloned animals may get sick more often, age faster, or have problems inside their bodies.
We hope that scientists do more research before using this idea in the real world!
