A team of researchers at Dallas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences has announced what they call the “world’s first successfully de-extincted animal” – three dire wolf pups created through genetic engineering and cloning technology.
The dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus), which went extinct approximately 12,500 years ago and served as inspiration for creatures in the television series “Game of Thrones,” was once a dominant predator across North America. According to Colossal, the recreated dire wolves possess distinctive traits of their ancient predecessors, including wider heads, lighter thick fur, and stronger jaws than their closest living relatives, gray wolves.
“This massive milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works,” said Ben Lamm, Colossal’s cofounder and CEO. “Our team took DNA from a 13,000 year old tooth and a 72,000 year old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies.”
According to The CNN, the creation process involved extracting and analyzing ancient DNA from dire wolf fossils to identify genetic variants specific to the extinct species. Scientists then used CRISPR technology to make 20 edits across 14 genes in gray wolf cells, which share 99.5% of their DNA with dire wolves. These edited cells were cloned and transferred into dog egg cells, which were implanted into large mixed-breed hounds serving as surrogate mothers.
Two male dire wolf pups were born on October 1, 2024, followed by a female on January 30, 2025. The animals currently live on a secure 2,000-acre site at an undisclosed location enclosed by 10-foot-tall “zoo-grade” fencing, where they are constantly monitored.
Matt James, Colossal’s chief animal officer, described the pups as “habituated to people” but not tame, noting they remain “much more standoffish, much more skittish” than gray wolves. The company hopes to “grow the pack” in the future.
While some scientists have questioned whether these animals truly represent dire wolves given they are genetically 99.9% gray wolf, Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief science officer, argues the debate misses the point: “These classifications are human constructs. They’re useful frameworks for talking about things, but they’re tools, not truths.”
Beyond the dire wolf project, Colossal has been working toward resurrecting other extinct species including the mammoth, dodo, and Tasmanian tiger since its founding in 2021. The company has raised at least $435 million to fund these efforts and claims the technology developed for the dire wolf project is already helping conservation of endangered species, including the critically endangered red wolf.
Critics of de-extinction raise concerns about the substantial financial investment that might be better directed toward existing conservation efforts, while environmental philosophers question whether these recreated animals could ever play meaningful ecological roles, particularly given current challenges in protecting existing wolf populations.