The dire wolf is back

Wolves back from extinction through genetic cloning

News | May 2025

People watch movies like Jurassic Park and think, “I wonder what it would be like if we could bring back species in real life?” Well, a biotech company called Colossal Biosciences has managed to do it and brought back a species from extinction. It's not a dinosaur, but it's a wolf from the Pleistocene Epoch time period. The scientist managed to bring back was the dire wolf. Using preserved DNA samples. And grey wolf DNA, to bioengineer hybrids.

Three exist: Romulus and Remus, Remus. Being the first to be brought back. And more recently, a female named Khaleesi according to Time magazine. All are puppies, and are being nursed by grey wolves in a secret research

habitat somewhere in Siberia. To avoid potential poachers and others wanting to harm the animals.

According to Colossals website, the reason behind bringing this species back is more than just science and proving that humans can if humans want. Because extinction is currently a giant problem that Earth is facing.

According to Colossal, on average, 33,000 species a year are becoming extinct. That is 150 per day, six per hour, and even up to 55,000 per year. The World Animal Foundation predicts one half of all species will be extinct by 2050.

The United Nations said that one million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. Colossals planned solution to the problem is a process called de-extinction. De-extinction is when people take DNA from preserved fossils and other samples and combine it with its closest predecessor.

This is the process brought back the Dire wolf, and it's what they plan on doing for many other extinct species. Their top priorities are: the Wooly Mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger, and the Dodo bird.

Colossal plans to bring back the Woolly mammoth, as soon as 2028. In the base case scenario even bringing it back in the same year.

The plan with the Woolly mammoth is to help the elephant population. For the same reason the Dire wolf was brought back, the plan is that Ice age animals will adapt to modern day climates, and as the years progress, other animals will share the same gene and, will be adapted to different climates.

The process of bringing back animals from extinction follows a ten step plan.

• Step one is finding a well preserved sample to extract the DNA.

• Step two is sequencing the DNA and writing it out.

• Step three will be combining the DNA with a close relative of the animal.

• Step four is identifying ideal traits for the purpose.

• Step five is splicing the DNA for easy editing.

• Step six is inserting knew preferable DNA for whatever purpose the animal is being brought back (cold, weather genes, terrain etc.).

• Step seven is testing the DNA using stem cells.

• Step eight is finalizing and making sure all DNA is correct.

• Step nine. is implanting the embryo into a healthy animal.

• Step ten is the animal being brought back.

Smithsonian magazine said dire wolfs shares 99.5 of there DNA sequence with grey wolves.

Since the dire wolf is a genetic clone and not a full pure version, some would assume it would just look like a grey wolf, but this is far from the truth. Any slight genetic modification changes the animal drastically. For example, according to PetMD dogs share most of their genetic DNA with wolves. In fact, the standard pug shares more than 99% of their DNA with wolves, meaning that the Dire wolf DNA, combined with the grey wolves DNA, is extremely close to what the DIre wolf actually was.