A group of scientists has successfully brought back the dire wolf, an animal that became extinct nearly 12,500 years ago. The team behind this work is from a company in Texas called Colossal Biosciences. They used ancient DNA, gene editing, and cloning to create the pups, as per a report in CNN.
The two new dire wolf pups are named Romulus and Remus. They are just six months old but already weigh more than 36 kg and are nearly four feet long. This wonderful achievement has shocked scientists around the world. The dire wolf became popular through the HBO show Game of Thrones, where they were shown as strong and mysterious animals.
To bring them back, the scientists used the DNA of the grey wolf, which is the dire wolf’s closest living relative. The dire wolf was once a top predator in North America. They were bigger than grey wolves, with stronger jaws and thicker fur.
George Church, one of the founders of Colossal and a genetics professor at Harvard and MIT, told Time Magazine, “The idea that we could just take a vial of blood, isolate EPCs, culture them, and clone from them, and they have a pretty high cloning efficiency, we think it’s a game changer.”
Pups are different and like being alone
After birth, the pups drank milk from a surrogate mother for a few days. Then, the Colossal team started feeding them with bottles. The company said the pups are now living like healthy young dire wolves.
However, their behaviour is different from other wolves. According to Time, they do not show the usual happy reaction that most puppies have around humans. Romulus and Remus stay away from people. Even the handler who has cared for them since birth cannot get very close. The pups flinch when someone tries to approach them. This lonely behaviour is believed to be normal for dire wolves.
Elon Musk reacted to the news by posting, “Please make a miniature pet woolly mammoth,” on X, while sharing his own post.
Colossal Biosciences is also working to bring back other animals like the woolly mammoth, dodo, and Tasmanian tiger. They have faced some difficulties but are still hopeful.
“This massive milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works,” said Ben Lamm, the company’s co-founder and CEO.
The pups live at a secret 2,000-acre site with 10-foot fences, guards, drones, and cameras. Three pups have been brought back so far—two males born on October 1, 2024, and one female born on January 30, 2025.
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