Part 2 - 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!
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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

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.

                                                           Part 3 – the implications of de-extinction for us.

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