Munedawg Communications

The Dire Wolf is back!

Well, thanks to the brilliant folks at Colossal Biosciences who have used the amazing technology of gene manipulation…

Founded by Harvard geneticist George Church and funded by billionaire entrepreneur Ben Lamm, Colossal Biosciences are committed to “de-extincting” extinct species such as the wooly mammoth, the dodo, and the dire wolf as well as preserving the northern white rhinocerous. Yes, basically the same concept as presented by Michael Crichton in Jurassic Park. And they have also recruited evolutionary molecular biologist Beth Shapiro as the Chief Science Officer.

Using what is known in the molecular biology world as CRISPR technology they are able to splice genes from one species into another. CRISPER stands for “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats”. It uses what is known as a “nuclease”, that is an enzyme that can cut and splice sequences from DNA.

In the mammoth project, they hope to take DNA from preserved woolly mammoth carcasses and splice them into the DNA of Asian elephant embryos to create a quasi-“mammoth.”

In the case of the dire wolves they used a similar process.

Amazingly the dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus, genus: “terrible wolf” species: “to fear”) is an actual extinct species of canine that existed in the Americas during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene eras, 125,000 to 10,000 years ago. It was about 25% larger than modern wolves and had a fearsome bite that allowed it to hunt the megafauna that existed back then like western horses, dwarf pronghorn, flat-headed peccary, ground sloths, ancient bison, mammoths, and camels.

George R.R. Martin cleverly used this as the basis for the dire wolves in A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones. (Gene Wolfe also did a similar thing in his literary science fiction masterpiece The Book of the New Sun in which he has a future Earth populated by various creatures that are genetically engineered to mimic creatures from Earth’s past as well as alien species that had been brought to Earth.)

The Colossal team extracted DNA from two dire wolf fossils and were able to reconstruct a partial dire wolf genome. They then made 20 edits on 14 genes on gray wolf embryos and planted them in dog surrogate mothers.

After this process, they successfully birthed three “dire wolves” named Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi after the mythical twin brothers who were the founders of Rome (who were suckled by a she-wolf) and the honorific of the fictional character of Danerys Targaryean from A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones.

George R.R. Martin actually visited the facility and met his creations in the real world.

But are the so called “dire wolves” that Colossal has brought to life actual de-extincted animals. Not really. They are gray wolves that have some dire wolf characteristics but according to experts aren’t real dire wolves brought back from the past.

For instance, Nic Rawlence, an associate professor and co-director of the Otago Palaeogenetics Laboratory at the University of Otago, New Zealand said that “This is not a de-extincted dire wolf, rather it’s a ‘hybrid.’”

And other scientists have questioned the whole notion of bringing back extinct species when so many species today are in danger. Personally I have mixed feelings about the idea as well. I agree that really the main focus should be on protecting and preserving the species that are alive today. But the Colossal team is interested on creating new northern white rhinos, which are on the verge of extinction. Which is laudable of course but brings up the question that if they have been driven to extinction now will they be able to survive as a species down the road?

And of course there is the ever elusive blue rhino (Rhinoceros cerulean), which creates the alkane propane (C₃H₈) from its fiery horn! 😊

But that silliness aside, will a real “Jurassic Park” ever exist?

Possibly. Right now it is not possible because with current biotechnology you would need the intact DNA and complete genome of dinosaur species in order to accomplish this. And Michael Crichton’s clever idea of getting this by extracting it from mosquitos encapsulated in amber isn’t really possible because although there are ancient mosquitos that have been found in fossilized amber that have traces of blood in them they aren’t old enough to contain dino blood.

But, I do think genetic engineering actually will reach a point where biotech designers will be able to create at least approximations of dinosaurs and of course totally new animal and plant species.

Is all this ethical? A lot of people don’t think so but I personally disagree. Even today’s GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) have been met with resistance. And I used to edit a cooking show in which the host had interviewed Julia Child and she had commented that humans should “monkey around with nature” in order to feed the teaming multitudes on Earth and he was appalled by this suggestion. But I would remind people that humans have been monkeying around with nature for millennia. So many domesticated plants and animals are the result of selective breeding and hybridization by humans. For instance, modern corn was created by successively replanting mutations of the wild teosinte plant to produce a larger product.

Likewise, all dog breeds are a product of selectively breeding essentially wolf ancestors to create animals suited to various tasks.

So yes, I am hoping for the fanciful but sometimes terrifying future depicted by Gene Wolfe in The Book of the New Sun series! 😜

No, be afraid, be very afraid! ☹️🙂