Three genetically modified wolves that could resemble the extinct dire wolves are trotting, sleeping, and howling in an undisclosed location in the United States, according to a company seeking to bring back lost species.
Wolf pups, who are between three and six months old, have long white fur, muscular jaws, and already weigh around 80 pounds, on their way to reaching 140 pounds at maturity, researchers at Colossal Biosciences reported on Monday.
What were the giant wolves like?
The dire wolves, that went extinct over 10,000 years ago, are much larger than gray wolves, their closest living relatives today.
Independent scientists said that this latest milestone does not mean that dire wolves will soon return to the prairies of North America.
“The only thing you can do now is make something superficially resemble something else,” not completely revive extinct species, noted Vincent Lynch, a biologist from the University of Buffalo who was not involved in the research.
How was cloning used to “create” dire wolves?
The scientists at Colossal learned about specific traits that the dire wolves possessed by examining ancient DNA from fossils. The researchers studied a tooth from a giant wolf that was unearthed in Ohio 13,000 years ago and a skull fragment from one found in Idaho 72,000 years ago, both part of natural history museum collections.
Then, the scientists took blood cells from a live gray wolf and used CRISPR technology to genetically modify them in 20 sites, as indicated by Beth Shapiro, the chief scientific officer of Colossal. They transferred that genetic material to a domestic dog egg. When they were ready, the embryos were transferred to surrogate mothers, also domestic dogs, and 62 days later the genetically modified puppies were born.
Colossal has previously announced similar projects to genetically alter cells of living species to create animals resembling woolly mammoths, dodos, and other extinct animals.
Although the puppies may physically resemble dire wolves, “they probably will never learn the final movement of how to kill a giant moose or a large deer,” because they will not have opportunities to observe and learn from wild giant wolves, said Matt James, Colossal’s chief animal care expert.
Colossal’s CEO, Ben Lamm, said that the team met with officials from the U.S. Department of the Interior in late March about the project. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum commented on Monday that the work represented an “exciting new era of scientific wonder,” even as external scientists said there are limitations to restoring the past.
“Whatever ecological function the once-terrible wolf performed before becoming extinct, it cannot perform those functions in today’s existing landscapes,” noted Lynch from the University at Buffalo.