Colossal Biosciences Resurrects Dire Wolf After 12,000 Years
Twelve thousand years after they vanished from the face of the Earth, dire wolves—once apex predators of the Ice Age—have returned. In a stunning scientific breakthrough, Colossal Biosciences, the ambitious de-extinction company known for its efforts to resurrect the woolly mammoth, announced the successful birth of three dire wolf pups created through genetic editing and cloning.
Weighing up to 150 pounds, dire wolves were nearly twice the size of modern gray wolves, boasting formidable jaws, broad shoulders, and muscular frames. They once roamed vast stretches of both North and South America, hunting ancient horses, camels, sloths, and bison before disappearing around the end of the last Ice Age.
Now, thanks to advances in genome sequencing and synthetic biology, they’ve been brought back.
The company’s team sequenced DNA from two remarkable fossils: a 13,000-year-old tooth discovered in Ohio and a 72,000-year-old skull from Idaho. With this ancient genetic blueprint, they performed 15 key edits on the DNA of gray wolves to approximate the dire wolf genome. Using a method reminiscent of the cloning process that produced Dolly the sheep, the altered nuclei were inserted into enucleated dog eggs and implanted in surrogate canines.
The result: four pups were born—three survived.
The two six-month-old males, Romulus and Remus (named after the mythic founders of Rome), and a two-month-old female, Khaleesi (a nod to the wolf-associated character from Game of Thrones), represent the first living dire wolves in over 10,000 years. The pups are striking—larger than gray wolves with powerful builds, broad heads, and thick, pale coats that echo descriptions from fossil reconstructions.
Today, the animals reside on a sprawling 2,000-acre facility somewhere in the northern United States. While the precise location remains confidential for safety and ethical reasons, Colossal reports that some Indigenous groups have expressed interest in eventually offering land for the animals to roam, reconnecting ancestral predators with their native habitats.
This resurrection of the dire wolf marks a new chapter in humanity’s relationship with extinction. Once symbols of lost wilderness, these creatures are now living embodiments of biotechnology’s power to rewind time. Colossal Biosciences continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible, with efforts also underway to bring back other long-lost species like the woolly mammoth, the dodo, and the Tasmanian tiger.
The dire wolf’s return is not just a scientific milestone—it’s a myth made real.
