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Dire Wolf De-Extinction Update

1:27:04 recording · AUTO · 2 speakers

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Brief overview

Colossal's "dire wolves" are gray wolves with 20 edits, not a de-extinct species.

  1. Twenty edits, not a restored genomeThe gray wolf and dire wolf genomes differ by almost 15 million changes; Colossal made 20 in 14 genes.
  2. The real advance is blood-cell cloningEndothelial progenitor cells from a blood draw replace invasive tissue sampling used since Dolly, which matters for livestock and endangered species.
  3. De-extinction PR is cover for weaker protectionThe Interior Department embraced the story while habitat destruction is being reclassified as not harming endangered species.
Executive Summary AI
  • Nels Elde takes the dire wolf de-extinction headlines apart using the one thing on the record, a Colossal Biosciences preprint on the ancestry and evolution of the extinct dire wolf, with Beth Shapiro as senior author and George R.R. Martin among the authors.8:50
  • What Colossal actually did was make 20 genetic changes to 14 genes in the gray wolf genome, using endothelial progenitor cells from gray wolf blood rather than tissue, which Nels calls the real technical advance since Dolly the sheep.23:46
  • Roughly 45 engineered ova were used per animal, embryos were carried by hound-mix surrogates and delivered by C-section, giving Romulus and Remus on October 1st, 2024 and the female Khaleesi on January 30th, all on a 2,000-acre private preserve in an undisclosed US location.28:59
  • Against the gray wolf template the two ancient genomes, one about 13,000 years old from a Cincinnati Museum Center tooth and one about 72,000 years old from an Idaho Museum of Natural History skull, show nearly 15 million differences, so 20 edits do not make a dire wolf.52:11
  • Nels closes on the criticism: paleoecologists Nick Rawlence and Michael Knapp note the pups would have to function in an ecosystem that no longer exists, and the de-extinction story is being used politically while the Endangered Species Act is weakened and NIH indirect costs are cut to 15%.1:02:55
Key Quote
“Or should we let evolution stay where it was?”
— Vincent16:38
Key Quote
“And so this is a genetically modified gray wolf that we're looking at.”
— Nels17:33
Key Quote
“So no ancient dire wolf DNA was actually spliced into the gray wolf genome.”
— Nels26:16