this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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Disappointed (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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https://www.newscientist.com/article/2475407-no-the-dire-wolf-has-not-been-brought-back-from-extinction/

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (14 children)

So what's the genetic difference? If the copy was good enough, surely they would be dire wolves? Also, what is the motivation to bring back dire wolves?

[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I'm not the president of genetics, but dire wolves are apparently super different to present-day wolves. They're not even in the Canis genus. Regular grey wolves are Canis lupus and dire wolves are Aenocyon dirus. Canis and Aenocyon split off from a common ancestor 5.7 million years ago.

To create these new dire wolves, scientists modified 14 genes to express traits they considered to simulate the appearance of dire wolves--I specifically say simulate because in at least one case (the white coat), they took a gene from regular ass-dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) rather than replicating the original dire wolf coat.

I'm guessing, but there's probably more than 14 genes that changed since these two species diverged almost 6 million years ago. These wolves are almost certainly much, much closer to Canis lupus than Aenocyon dirus.

Sources:

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Lol ass-dogs

On a serious note, does anyone else get some serious Dunning-Kruger vibes from this? Like serious scientists and experts in the field are very specificly saying that these are not dire wolves. The only people saying they are dire wolves are the owners of the private company that made them. A company with an invested economic interest in people believing them. I'm not an expert geneticist, but I hope you'll excuse me if I believe the scienctists over the people saying, "you can tell it's a direwolf by the way that it is!" so that they can make money.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago

It’s not Dunning-Kruger because the scientists know they’re lying. It’s just capitalism.

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