Game of Thrones – Are Dire Wolves Back?

Have you heard of Game of Thrones? I have, but I’ve never watched it. Two or three weeks ago, it came to my attention for a new reason . . . because someone brought back Dire Wolves. I’d never heard of them either, but the incredible part – Dire Wolves have been extinct for over 10,000 years.
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To see and hear that something that’s extinct is alive again made me flash back to Jurassic Park. The movie where scientists made T Rex and Velociraptor live again. YIKES!

Part 1 – Picturing a Dire Wolf: I couldn’t find a picture to match my imagination. I thought I’d be staring into its eyes as it stood on four legs looking at me. Something that big has an enormous appetite, and wolves eat meat.

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But dire wolves aren’t that huge. They look more like gray wolves. They even share a common ancestor . . . it lived over 6 million years ago.

​The first image below, it’s a fossilized skeleton of a dire wolf from North America. If you’d like to see it face to face, tooth to tooth, check out the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas. Does it still look big to you? Me too!
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Now take a look at the second image, on the graph. It helps me picture their true size. Dire wolves would have been about a meter or 40 inches tall. My height is 65 inches, so that wolf would have stood about hip high.

But, when I look at his length, the dire wolf was about 2 meters long. That’s 80 inches of wolf standing on his hind legs. He would have towered 15 inches above my head. Now check out his teeth . . . YIKES!
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                                      This link from Animal Planet explains why dire wolves are still extinct.
                                                       No, Geneticists Did Not Bring The Dire Wolf Back
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                                                                      Part 2 – Are Dire Wolves Back, or Not?:
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 Colossal or Colossal Bioscience is the company at the heart of this debate. They say they brought the dire wolf back after being extinct for over 10,000 years. I took a screenshot from their website, and this is their logo. If you’d like to read about them, here’s their link: De-extinction Projects, Facts & Statistics | Colossal     


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​This IS NOT a dire wolf. It’s a gray one. They look a lot alike. That’s because they share a common ancestor that lived over 6 million years ago. Think of your 6 million times great grandparents. It was that long ago.
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Colossal used ancient DNA samples from dire wolves, then altered some gray wolf DNA, but some experts say not so fast. They say the pups aren’t really dire wolves. They’re really gray ones with some modified and superficial traits.
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Remember this image from part 1? It’s our friend, the dire wolf. Let’s compare some of his traits to a gray wolf. 

A dire wolf stands 39 inches tall at the shoulder. A gray wolf, only 30 inches tall.

A dire wolf is about 80 inches long, and so is the gray wolf…but that includes his tail.

A dire wolf weighed 130-150 pounds. A gray wolf, 100-143 pounds.

And last the teeth! Dire wolves have larger teeth than any wolf living today, and that includes the gray one. I really hope those new dire wolf pups are more like their gray cousins than their own great grandparents.
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                 My Research links: Dire wolf | Size, Origins, De-Extinction, & Characteristics | Britannica
                                              Gray wolf | Size, Habitat, Diet, Predators, & Facts | Britannica
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Animal Planet reported that the modern dire wolf story began when Colossal extracted DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull. They used the DNA as a guide to help them bring back the dire wolf. Then they took blood from a gray wolf, edited its DNA using the ancient genetic information, and transferred the updated DNA to a dog egg. That egg was then implanted into a female dog who gave birth to dire wolf pups for the first time in 10,000 years.

That sounds like the right recipe, especially since gray wolves and dire wolves have DNA that’s 99.5% the same. That’s a lot, but would you believe it leaves out millions of DNA differences between the two kinds of wolves? Then consider Colossal only edited 20 of those millions of genetic differences, and 5 edits gave them white coats, like the ones in Game of Thrones. That still leaves millions of bits of DNA that were never edited. Colossal’s pups sound like they’re more related to their gray wolf cousins than their extinct ones.


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 Part 3 – The Implications of De-Extinction: When Colossal introduced their dire wolf pups, they advanced genetic engineering but fell short of de-extinction. My source from Animal Planet said it raised questions about the implications.                     ​
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​This chart shows how we classify the animal world according to what they look like on the inside, outside, and how those sides work together. Animal Planet’s first concern, that this was too subjective, and not rigorous enough.

They thought evolutionary relationships between dire wolves and gray ones over time should have had more emphasis. That DNA sequencing of traits should have been studied then applied.
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For me the debate between the two views shows how hard it is to define a species, let alone bring an extinct one back to life. My question, how do you know you’re interpreting the DNA correctly, then putting it together properly? 

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​Another concern from Animal Planet was about protecting our endangered animals. If companies like Colossal invest in de-extinction, there are less resources for animals who aren’t extinct yet, but could be.
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Reintroduced species like the wolves at Yellowstone must be considered. They vanished from the national park but are found in other places. There’s only so much money for conservation. Spending it on de-extinction won’t save animals in danger today.

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Animal Planet shared another reason for caution using the example of the Pyrenean Ibex. It was cloned and brought back from de-extinction. The scientists thought they’d chosen the right set of genes, but the baby Ibex died soon after birth.

If it had survived, where would it live? How about the dire wolves? Many animals are struggling to survive as habitats shrink. Adding de-extincted animals to those habitats would put more living creatures at risk.

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​Animal Planet’s final concern, that a commercial or entertainment interest might push a project too far, too fast, and end badly.

Think Jurassic Park and bringing the dinosaurs back. Remember the ending with kids hiding from a T Rex and a herd of Velociraptors? They pushed the science too far, underestimated dinosaur intelligence, and overestimated ours.
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The dire wolf has the same potential thanks to Game of Thrones. Science and entertainment have different interests, different requirements. Thank goodness, those pups are genetically enhanced gray wolves, with only a few dire wolf traits.
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It’s heartwarming to bring back an extinct animal, but it’s also scary. Even scientists don’t know what they don’t know. Think Pyrenean Ibex or Jurassic Park. I hope scientists working on de-extinction will take careful steps as they continue their research.

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