Mar 5, 2026 08:14 PM
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/04/nx-s1-570...-dire-wolf
EXCERPTS: Colossal scientists are analyzing dozens of mammoth DNA samples and comparing them to genetic material from living elephants to pinpoint critical genes. "This is a way of narrowing down that list of what variants are important to making a mammoth rather than another type of elephant," Shapiro says.
Colossal's scientists are using those genetic guideposts to try to create cloned, gene-edited mammoth embryos from the skin cells of Asian elephants, which are the extinct mammoth's closest living relative.
The embryos would be transferred into surrogate female Asian elephants in the hopes they'll give birth to mammoths 22 months later. The company says it's getting close and predicts the birth of the first mammoth in about two years. "And that will be our first mammoth," says Shapiro, with a chuckle. "That's the plan."
[...] Colossal made another big splash last year when the company announced scientists had brought back the dire wolf, which gained fame in the television series Game of Thrones.
Dire wolves resemble gray wolves but were larger, heavier and had broader skulls and more powerful teeth than their surviving relatives. Colossal named the animals Romulus, Remus and, of course, Khaleesi, a character from the series. They're on a secret preserve somewhere.
Romulus and Remus, the pups with dire wolf traits that were bred by Colossal Biosciences, are pictured at three months old. They have white fur and pink ears. Critics, however, dismiss Colossal's dire wolves as a publicity stunt — saying they are really just gray wolves genetically modified to look like what the writers of Game of Thrones imagined.
Similarly, they argue, Colossal's mammoths wouldn't really be mammoths but simply Asian elephants modified to have some mammoth traits, such as shaggy coats and fat to warm them in their frozen world.
"Just because it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it isn't actually going to be a duck," Nic Rawlence, a paleogeneticist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, told NPR. "I think it's honestly a pipedream. Extinction is still forever."
And even if Colossal could re-create a mammoth, critics question whether that would even be ethical. They argue it would be unethical to resurrect extinct species that could very well just suffer and go extinct all over again— this time because their old habitat has changed too much or, perhaps, they don't have real mammoth mothers to teach the intelligent, social creatures how to survive.
"It could be very cruel to those animals," Jeanne Loring, a biologist from the Scripps Institute in California, said during an interview with NPR.
Another concern is that, just like in Jurassic Park, something unanticipated could go terribly wrong. [...] Critics also argue the money Colossal is spending would be better used to save existing species on the brink of extinction. Skeptics even fear Colossal's efforts could undermine conservation efforts.
"The argument would be something like: 'Now we don't have to worry about conservation anymore because we can just bring animals back from the dead,'" says Vincent Lynch, a professor of biology at the University of Buffalo.
In fact, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum cited the possibility of "de-extinction" when questioning the Endangered Species Act. "It's time to fundamentally change how we think about species conservation," Burgum wrote on X... (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: Colossal scientists are analyzing dozens of mammoth DNA samples and comparing them to genetic material from living elephants to pinpoint critical genes. "This is a way of narrowing down that list of what variants are important to making a mammoth rather than another type of elephant," Shapiro says.
Colossal's scientists are using those genetic guideposts to try to create cloned, gene-edited mammoth embryos from the skin cells of Asian elephants, which are the extinct mammoth's closest living relative.
The embryos would be transferred into surrogate female Asian elephants in the hopes they'll give birth to mammoths 22 months later. The company says it's getting close and predicts the birth of the first mammoth in about two years. "And that will be our first mammoth," says Shapiro, with a chuckle. "That's the plan."
[...] Colossal made another big splash last year when the company announced scientists had brought back the dire wolf, which gained fame in the television series Game of Thrones.
Dire wolves resemble gray wolves but were larger, heavier and had broader skulls and more powerful teeth than their surviving relatives. Colossal named the animals Romulus, Remus and, of course, Khaleesi, a character from the series. They're on a secret preserve somewhere.
Romulus and Remus, the pups with dire wolf traits that were bred by Colossal Biosciences, are pictured at three months old. They have white fur and pink ears. Critics, however, dismiss Colossal's dire wolves as a publicity stunt — saying they are really just gray wolves genetically modified to look like what the writers of Game of Thrones imagined.
Similarly, they argue, Colossal's mammoths wouldn't really be mammoths but simply Asian elephants modified to have some mammoth traits, such as shaggy coats and fat to warm them in their frozen world.
"Just because it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it isn't actually going to be a duck," Nic Rawlence, a paleogeneticist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, told NPR. "I think it's honestly a pipedream. Extinction is still forever."
And even if Colossal could re-create a mammoth, critics question whether that would even be ethical. They argue it would be unethical to resurrect extinct species that could very well just suffer and go extinct all over again— this time because their old habitat has changed too much or, perhaps, they don't have real mammoth mothers to teach the intelligent, social creatures how to survive.
"It could be very cruel to those animals," Jeanne Loring, a biologist from the Scripps Institute in California, said during an interview with NPR.
Another concern is that, just like in Jurassic Park, something unanticipated could go terribly wrong. [...] Critics also argue the money Colossal is spending would be better used to save existing species on the brink of extinction. Skeptics even fear Colossal's efforts could undermine conservation efforts.
"The argument would be something like: 'Now we don't have to worry about conservation anymore because we can just bring animals back from the dead,'" says Vincent Lynch, a professor of biology at the University of Buffalo.
In fact, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum cited the possibility of "de-extinction" when questioning the Endangered Species Act. "It's time to fundamentally change how we think about species conservation," Burgum wrote on X... (MORE - details)