Watch: Dire wolves howl again after more than 10,000 years
A wild chapter from the past is being rewritten. Researchers at Colossal Biosciences have revived a fragment of the Ice Age. They’ve managed to create three wolf pups that have an eerie resemblance to the long-lost dire wolves — the mythical predators that once dominated North America more than 10,000 years ago.
The pups, aged between three and six months, are being kept in a secure location in the US. Dire wolves, which became extinct more than 10,000 years ago, were bigger and stronger than modern grey wolves.
ANCIENT DNA UNLOCKS EVOLUTIONARY SECRETS
Colossal scientists have studied ancient DNA from fossilised remains, including a 13,000-year-old tooth discovered in Ohio and a 72,000-year-old skull fragment discovered in Idaho, to crack the grim world genome. These samples preserved in museum collections enabled the researchers to pinpoint major genetic characteristics.
Researchers used CRISPR technology to modify grey wolf blood cells at 20 locations. These cells were then combined with dog egg cells and implanted in surrogates of domestic dogs. The genetically modified pups, with a remarkable resemblance to dire wolves, were developed after a 62-day pregnancy.
Despite their looks, Colossal’s chief animal care expert, Matt James, noted that the pups are unlikely to behave like true dire wolves.
“What they will probably never learn is the finishing move of how to kill a giant elk or a big deer,” James said, pointing out that behavioral learning from wild parents is irreplaceable.
The Associated Press reported, Independent scientists said that this doesn’t mean dire wolves are coming back to North American grasslands any time soon. “All you can do now is make something look superficially like something else— not fully revive extinct species,” said Vincent Lynch, a biologist at the University at Buffalo who was not involved in the research.
Colossal had previously announced similar projects to genetically modify cells of living animals to produce animals similar to extinct woolly mammoths, dodos, and others.
Colossal also said that it had cloned four red wolves from blood obtained from the wild southeastern U.S.’s critically endangered red wolf population.
