A Biologist Reacts to Dire Wolf De-Extinction

A biologist reacts to claims that Colossal Biociences have bred dire wolves. An extinct species of canines that were made famous by GRR Martin’s Game of Thrones.

00:00 - Dire Wolves
01:03 - What Are Dire Wolves
02:00 - Dire Wolf Facts
04:00 - How Did They Bring Back Dire Wolves
05:36 - Did They Really Bring Back the Dire Wolf?
07:00 - How To Push Back

Write to your representative and tell them that de-extinction is not an effective means of conservation. Make a big fuss:
https://win.newmode.net/montereybayaq...

The company compared the genomes of gray wolves to the fragmented genome of dire wolves, and found a few specific genetic differences that influenced appearances like the shape of their ears. Then, they made 20 changes to just 14 genes among the 2.5 billion base pairs in gray wolf germline cells. 5 of these gene edits are just mutations known to produce a lighter colored coat.

So, let’s be clear what happened here. Colossal biosciences didn’t splice ancient dire wolf DNA into the gray wolf's genome. In fact, these “dire wolves” don’t have any dire wolf DNA in them, at all. They are 100% pure gray wolves who were genetically modified to look like what we think dire wolves might have looked like. And by “we” I mean the general population who have been influenced by media like Game of Thrones. We don’t actually know that dire wolves HAD white coats. In fact, they probably did not. Like I said, dire wolves lived in habitats like prehistoric Los Angeles and studies on the paleoecology of LA found that the climate of prehistoric Southern California was roughly the same then as it is today. Warm and shrubby with very little snow. So white fur would not make sense for that habitat.

When confronted with the question, "So these pups aren’t really dire wolves at all, then?" The chief science officer of Colossal Bioscience answered, "species concepts are human classification systems, and everybody can disagree and everyone can be right.” To which I have to say… uh, no. Everyone can be right? That might be the most unscientific thing I’ve ever heard of in my life. She also added, “We are using the morphological species concept and saying, if they look like this animal, then they are the animal.” So, these gray wolves are giving big dire wolf vibes so they’re dire wolves and you resurrected them?

Sources
[1] https://bsky.app/profile/whysharksmat...
[2] https://cen.acs.org/biological-chemis...
[3] https://slate.com/technology/2025/04/...
[4] https://www.sciencealert.com/did-dire...
[5] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...
[6] https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/20/tr...
[7] https://www.sciencealert.com/did-dire...
[8] https://cen.acs.org/biological-chemis...
[9] https://www.newscientist.com/article/...
[10] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
[11] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
[12] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

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