While not the gigantic uber-canines of fantasy lore, these pups will become roughly-gray-wolf-sized dire wolves, and represent the first de-extincted animal species, raising a number of ethical questions about returning animals to ecosystems that may not be stable for long.

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[–] ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

~~I was thinking this was bs - like they just bred a big, wolf-like dog and called it a dire wolf. But no! They took genetic material from dire wolf remains and made dire wolf puppies! Wow. That's pretty wild.~~

Edit: nvm. Yeah they lyin'.

[–] egrets@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You were right the first time - they're CRISPR-edited gray wolves engineered to exhibit the physical traits they found in dire wolf DNA.

There's an 80-gene difference between dire wolves and gray wolves, and they've modified 14 of what they felt to be the most variant differences.

It's still fascinating and tremendously difficult, and probably the best we can hope for in a very long time, but I don't feel Colossal are being totally honest in their presentation.

[–] ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Damn. You're right. Those journalists were sneaky slipping in this quote and not challenging/clarifying it:

“We took a 13,000-year-old tooth, and a 74,000-year-old skull, and we made puppies,” Lamm told The Debrief.

[–] renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.net 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

The first species we Jurassic Parked are dire wolves?!

I swear humans are trying to speedrun their own demise.

[–] philycheeze@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There’s at least historical evidence of humans being able to re-extinct them if need be…

[–] renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.net 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah if there’s one things Humans excel at it’s killing things.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

We are dire hominids, after all

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I have it on good authority that life… uh… finds a way

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nah, it's cool. If they become a problem we just de-extinct dire gorillas to fight them. What could go wrong?

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well they’ll probably team up and then we’ll have to build mecha-gorillas and mecha-dire-wolves to fight them. And we haven’t even talked about who’s going to direct.

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Crazy thought, but hear me out: we put Spielberg and Bay in the mechs and let them fight over it. We'll have so much good footage for the edit!

[–] PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, maybe try the Dodo first or something else less dangerous than a giant wolf, right?

[–] Lucky_777@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

[–] brrt@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Since they went extinct they really were in dire need of resurrection.

[–] Willdrick@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Daaaad

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

In the backwoods of Fennario, the black and bloody mire, the dire wolf collects his due while the boys sing round the fire.

[–] massacre@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Winter is coming.

[–] Typotyper@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

Wolves are smart and dangerous enough. Do we really want packs of giant ones roaming the woods

How about some giant sloths

[–] devfuuu@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

We all know they weren't extinct, at least if you follow the secret of the skinwalker ranch :P

[–] burgersc12@mander.xyz 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

~~De-extincted~~ Reanimated

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I want ~~one~~ several.

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWY4hyIlsqQ