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The two males were followed by a female named Khaleesi, born in January 2025.
But this isn’t television. It’s not Game of Thrones. This is real science, and it could reshape how we think about extinction itself.
Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi: Engineering a legend
Dire wolves once ruled Ice Age North America, hunting mammoths, bison, and giant ground sloths. Larger and more robust than today’s grey wolves, they had powerful jaws, thick coats, and broad skulls—formidable traits that made them apex predators until they disappeared roughly 12,500 years ago.Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads
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From there, the team edited the DNA of grey wolf cells using CRISPR, targeting 14 genes across 20 distinct sites. These were chosen to replicate the dire wolf’s physical features, such as its muscular frame, head shape, and pale fur.
Ben Lamm, Colossal’s co-founder and CEO, put it plainly: “Our team took DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies.”
Not dire wolf clones—hybrids with purpose
This wasn’t cloning. It was editing—careful, deliberate rewriting of modern wolf DNA using ancient blueprints.As Colossal explained: “These two wolves were brought back from extinction using genetic edits derived from a complete dire wolf genome, meticulously reconstructed by Colossal from ancient DNA found in fossils dating back 11,500 and 72,000 years.”
When scientists discovered that the gene responsible for white fur in dire wolves was linked to deafness and blindness, they chose a safer modern equivalent. The result: animals with similar coats, but without the health risks.
Professor Love Dalén, an evolutionary genomics expert from Stockholm University and an adviser to Colossal, praised the work while acknowledging a grey area: “There’s no secret that across the genome, this is 99.9% grey wolf. There is going to be an argument in the scientific community regarding how many genes need to be changed to make a dire wolf, but this is really a philosophical question.”
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Still, he added, “It carries dire wolf genes, and these genes make it look more like a dire wolf than anything we’ve seen in the last 13,000 years. And that is very cool.”
Dire Wolf Extinction: A high-tech habitat, hidden from the world
The pups now live in “Zone Alpha,” a 2,000-acre high-security ecological preserve in a secret location in the northern United States.It’s not just a big backyard. The site features 10-foot-tall, zoo-grade fencing, surveillance drones, and full-time staff. There’s even an animal hospital on-site. The pups are fed beef, deer, and horse meat, along with dry food, and will eventually transition to whole prey.
Colossal says the preserve is certified by the American Humane Society and registered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
What is de-extinction really for?
Colossal isn’t stopping with dire wolves. Since 2021, the company has raised over $435 million with aims to revive other lost species—including the woolly mammoth, dodo, and Tasmanian tiger.They’ve also produced litters of cloned red wolves—North America’s most endangered canid—using techniques refined through the dire wolf project. The goal, they say, is to use this “end-to-end de-extinction technology stack” to support conservation as well as science.
Lamm calls it a new era: “It was once said, ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they are working on and its broader impact on conservation.”
But some experts urge caution. Vincent Lynch, a biologist at the University at Buffalo, told the Associated Press: “All you can do now is make something look superficially like something else—not fully revive extinct species.”
Christopher Preston, professor of environmental philosophy at the University of Montana, noted: “It is hard to imagine dire wolves ever being released and taking up an ecological role. So, I think it is important to ask what role the new animals will serve.”
He did, however, commend Colossal’s attention to animal welfare: “Colossal have taken thoughtful precautions to screen against any unintended genetic consequences of their edits, eliminating risky edits known to be associated with poor outcomes.”
Myth meets meme
The public, meanwhile, can’t get enough. The pups’ debut sparked a wave of memes, fan art, and celebrity reactions. Elon Musk shared edited images of the cubs on the Iron Throne and joked, “Please make a miniature pet woolly mammoth.”Others clamoured for micro-hippos, baby sabretooths, and even a real-life Jurassic Park. On X, one user posted: “Yes! I'm also still waiting for the micro hippopotamus.”
Even Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin chimed in: “Many people view dire wolves as mythical creatures that only exist in a fantasy world, but in reality, they have a rich history of contributing to the American ecosystem. I get the luxury to write about magic, but Ben and Colossal have created magic by bringing these majestic beasts back to our world.”
A beginning, not an end
Colossal says this is just the start. “We want to revolutionise history and be the first company to use CRISPR technology successfully in the de-extinction of previously lost species,” they wrote. “Now, close your eyes and listen to that howl once more. Think about what this means for all of us.”It’s a moment charged with emotion and uncertainty. A sound lost for millennia, echoing again. But whether it’s a scientific milestone, an ethical minefield, or a high-tech novelty, one thing is certain: the past isn’t staying buried anymore.
