The Dire Wolf is a fraud
The company Colossal Biosciences from the United States will be able to de-distinguish species in the future, perhaps, they intend to de-distinguish species like the dodo bird or the Tasmanian tiger or the mammoth, although it will depend on the amount of money that flows to their laboratories, because this story is about raising funds by selling us a glorious objective, de-distinguishing species, some of which disappeared directly due to human action.
On Monday, April 7, 2025, Colosal published a video explaining the process that gave rise to the birth of three genetically modified gray wolf pups, which had some genes from the ancient dire wolf.
On Tuesday, Time magazine put on its cover a magnificent snow-white wolf accompanied by a headline that announced the return of the dire wolf and also related it to the Dire wolf that appeared in the Game of Thrones series, although the wolf from Game of Thrones as well as the Dragons were fantastic animals, while the dire wolf existed more than 10,000 years ago in America.
In a publication the company states this:
That is the epic tone with which Colosal presented their achievement and although I am critical of what they have done, as are many experts from all over the world, I confess that with Colosal it happens to me like those characters in adventure movies who are canayas, fortune seekers, cheaters, but with a good heart who in the end put their skills at the service of a heroic cause and end up saving the day and thereby repay their sins by becoming better people.
why do I say all this? One of Colossal's arguments is to want to recover extinct species. In fact, in their writings they remember that right now we are experiencing a mass extinction, citing that if we continue on the same trajectory, half of the species currently alive will be extinct by the year 2050, transforming our current era into one of the largest mass extinctions in the history of the Earth.
And there are dozens of other species that have been lost in the last 50 years, but no, the first thing that they have supposedly distinguished is a wolf from the ice age that also receives the shocking title of dire wolf that looks great for the headlines and the media and can also be associated with the Direwolves from Game of Thrones, the mythical series.
Agree, for me as a geneticist it was obvious in first place, that the company is just doing some nice PR to ensure funding. But 15 genes snippets make not a new species. The fact that they nevertheless pretend this shows the lack of seriousness. Close to fraud (for potential investors).
That's right, I totally agree with you, it's marketing more than anything.
It's pretty common practice these days for a company to make fantastic claim to raise money, then use that money to try realizing their fantastic claims.
One reason for working with species like mammoths and dire wolves is to learn if we can actually get ancient DNA to replicate. We already know for a fact that we can clone animals when we have healthy DNA samples.
It's true, but someone who looks further is going to feel a little scammed, you have to go with the truth.
Thanks for your contribution to the STEMsocial community. Feel free to join us on discord to get to know the rest of us!
Please consider delegating to the @stemsocial account (85% of the curation rewards are returned).
You may also include @stemsocial as a beneficiary of the rewards of this post to get a stronger support.