Stepping Over a Line

By Andy Kober

Just a few days ago, the only knowledge most people had about a dire wolf came from the Game of Thrones series.
Until just a few days ago, few people knew the dire wolf actually existed in the past. They have been extinct for at least 10,000 years and possibly longer, though digitally recreated for and popularized in Game of Thrones.
Far from the mythical lands of Westeros and Essos, the dire wolf was in fact native to the Americas with remains having been found across much of North America, and to the savanna of South America. During its time, the dire wolf would have been considered among the top predators.
But the dire wolf is gone, having passed into the pages of history, with only fossils remaining.
Or is it?
LAST week it was announced that Colossal Biosciences, a biotech company based in Dallas, Texas, has brought the dire wolf back from extinction, creating three such animals. The report indicated that to achieve such a milestone, the company used DNA from dire wolf fossils that was still viable, combined with cloning technology, and editing the genes of a gray wolf.
Using the dire wolf DNA as an example to work from, Colossal Biosciences claimed to have altered the DNA of a gray wolf then used those DNA strands to replace the DNA strands from a domestic dog. The genetically manipulated embryos were then implanted in large domestic dogs who served as surrogate mothers.
The company says that two male dire wolf pups were born in October 2024, followed by a female in January 2025. Videos have since shown the “dire wolf” pups as cute little puppies, and then later having grown into juveniles and housed inside a secure containment area.
The report created quite a stir with some experts crying foul and challenging the claim.
While there is much concern regarding the validity of the claim, for the sake of discussion let us presume the claim from Colossal Biosciences is completely and totally correct. That in fact, the extinct dire wolf has been recreated. The question then becomes: what is next?
Prior to this event, Colossal Biosciences announced plans to recreate a mammoth, a creature that began disappearing about 14,000 years ago, with the last populations surviving until about 4,000 years ago. The company claims to have a target date of 2028 to produce a mammoth. Just that announcement is reported to have generated a tremendous amount of money in research funding, likely with some strings attached.
This might sound like science fiction drawn from the original and very popular “Jurassic Park” movie, but in the 1930s space travel, sending people to the Moon, or space probes to other planets was science fiction — yet today such is science fact.
The problem with such research is: where is the line that is not to be crossed?
WHILE dinosaur DNA is too badly degraded to be used in recreating such creatures, at least not with modern technology, there are many recently extinct apex predators from which viable DNA might be recovered. Some could include the North American sabertooth, Eastern Cougar, Florida Black Wolf along with other wolf species, Giant Short-Faced Bear, and others.
History has repeatedly taught us that if something can be done, inevitably it will be done and often without regard to consequences.
Dire wolf pups are cute today, but when full grown could prove quite a menace. So could the North American sabretooth.
That’s my opinion.
Andy Kober can be reached at andykober@hotmail.com

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