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Key Points
- Colossal Biosciences says it has raised three dire wolf pups.
- It claims it modified the genome of a modern wolf using dire wolf genes.
- But scientists have claimed this “does not make a dire wolf”.
One female puppy Khaleesi was also part of the “successfully birthed” cubs, they added.
As Bradshaw explained, it’s practically impossible to modify the entire genomes of animals that have been extinct for thousands of years due to factors like DNA degradation.
“It suggests that, well, at best, they’ve over-exaggerated. At worst, they’re lying through their teeth”.
The wolf pups are being hand-fed and closely monitored by the scientists. Source: Supplied / Colossal Biosciences
Beth Shapiro, chief scientific officer at Colossal Biosciences, told New Scientist magazine that species concepts are “human classification systems” meaning people can disagree.
“The genetic edits may have given these wolves a lighter coat to look reminiscent of a dire wolf — but what makes a species is more than just skin deep.
Colossal also said it has recently cloned critically endangered red wolves using the same technology, as well as the hybrid Colossal Woolly Mouse —mice genetically engineered to possess traits of the long-extinct wooly-mammoth.
