Scientists’ claim of dire wolves’ de-extinction questioned

A US-based science startup has said its experts have brought dire wolves back from extinction. However, some scientists are pouring cold water on their claim.

The startup had announced its achievement with a statement from the official of the US Fish and Wildlife Service that has been featured in major media outlets.

however, scientists are arguing there’s reason for scepticism about the hype.

The Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences said it has “successfully de-extincted” dire wolves.

In an press release, the company said: “The successful birth of three dire wolves is a revolutionary milestone of scientific progress.”

The news was also the cover story in the May issue of Time Magazine.

The company’s press release, in fact, includes a entire document discussing the dire wolf’s impact on pop culture.

The document rattles off references ranged from Sergei Prokofiev’s 1930s composition Peter and The Wolf to metal rock band Metallica to indie icon Bon Iver.

The paper also included a list of celebrities that have named their children after wolves (Lauren Conrad and William Tell called their son Charlie Wolf Tell).

The Colossal experts modified the genes of grey wolf that they used to create embryos, which were implanted into surrogates that gave birth to pups.

These modifications were based on analysis of DNA extracted from couple of dire wolf fossils: a tooth from Sheridan Pit, Ohio and an inner-ear bone from American Falls, Idaho.

The press release further said that the team deeply sequenced the extracted DNA and used novel approach of Colossal to iteratively assemble high quality ancient genomes.

It added that together, this data provided over 500 times more coverage of the dire wolf genome than was available previously.

This hype has been fuelled by the company’s references to the fantasy series A Game of Thrones, in which some characters have dire wolves as pets.