Dire Wolves Are Still Extinct
The media are such suckers for hyperbolic biotech stories. Colossal Laboratories and Bioscience made headlines for supposedly having genetically engineered a return of dire wolves that disappeared about 12,500 or so years ago, which many stories claimed to now be “de-extinct” after three gene-edited pups were born. Uh, no. The company actually engineered gray wolves to have white fur and (if it works) a larger stature. But despite a similar appearance, gray wolves are not actually close relatives of the extinct species. From the New Scientist story: Grey wolves and dire wolves were thought to be very closely related based on their physical similarities but a 2021 study of ancient DNA revealed that they last shared a common ancestor around Read More ›
