They might seem like something ripped straight out of a fantasy epic, but dire wolves were real and once walked the Earth some 13,000 years ago. Of course they went extinct, however a Dallas-based biotech firm now claims to have resurrected the species via genetically engineering.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00They might seem like something ripped straight out of a fantasy epic, but direwolves were real,
00:08and ones walked the earth some 13,000 years ago. Of course, they went extinct. However,
00:13a Dallas-based biotech firm now claims to have resurrected the species via genetic engineering.
00:18These are the direwolf pups that were the result of Colosso Bioscience's project,
00:23named Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi. The company edited 20 specific points of gray wolf DNA,
00:28and then used a surrogate dog to bring the infants to term. But have they really done it?
00:32Well, not everyone is convinced. Critics say that despite their efforts, direwolves diverged from
00:37gray wolves 5.7 million years ago, meaning no matter how many genetic edits occur, it's unlikely you
00:42will be able to get an exact one-to-one replication of a direwolf precisely. Even if these genetically
00:47engineered creatures might look the part physically, there's far too much going on under the hood to
00:51claim the de-extinction of a species. The technology certainly still has merits, however, and could
00:56provide value for both genetics and the conservation and preservation of non-extinct animals.