New York: Scientists have brought back to life a rare species of wolf that went extinct nearly 12,500 years ago, through genetic engineering.
Dire wolf, made popular by HBO series 'Game of Thrones', once roamed North America before dying out, NDTV reported.
Texas-based Colossal Biosciences created the dire wolf pups by using ancient DNA, cloning and gene editing.
Scientist’s efforts resulted into resurrecting two pups named Romulus and Remus taking scientific world by storm.
Just six months old, the animals already measure nearly four feet and weigh over 36 kg.
They were created using the DNA of the extinct wolf’s closest living relative, the gray wolf.
The dire wolves, a top predator, were larger in size than the gray wolves with slightly thicker fur and stronger jaw.
George Church, co-founder of Colossal Biosciences, and professor of genetics at both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) told Time Magazine that the creation of the animals was ‘a game changer’.
‘The idea that we could just take a vial of blood, isolate EPCs, culture them, and clone from them, and they have a pretty high cloning efficiency, we think it's a game changer,’ George Church reportedly said.
For a few days after their birth, a surrogate fed them before the team at Colossal Biosciences started feeding them from bottle.
The pups are now living as healthy young dire wolves, according to the company.
The pups’ behavior is different from other wolf species living today, exhibiting no exuberance in the presence of humans.
Romulus and Remus keep a distance and withdraw as a person approaches.
They flinch even as a handler who raised them from birth approaches, showcasing the typical behavior of dire wolves, which underlines they want to be lonely.
Colossal Biosciences has plans to resurrect other animals including mammoth, dodo and Tasmanian tiger with the scientists achieving ‘limited success’ in these projects.
Ben Lamm, Colossal's co-founder and CEO, said that the team of scientists working with the company ‘took DNA from a 13,000 year old tooth and a 72,000 year old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies’
The team resurrected three pups in total with two males taking birth on October 1, 2024 and a female born on January 30, 2025.