Colossal Biosciences caught our imagination – and elicited memories of “Jurassic Park” – when the Dallas-based biotech company announced back in 2021 it would use cutting-edge genetics editing technology to bring back the woolly mammoth.
This week, the company really turned heads with the release of photos and videos they say depict living, breathing dire wolves – predators thought to be killed off on this continent at the Ice Age’s end about 13,000 years ago.
Colossal’s gene editing advances allowed them to harvest ancient DNA from real dire wolves fossils – a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull – and create dire wolf genomes. Then, they edited the genome of the dire wolf’s oldest surviving relative, the gray wolf, to express dire wolf traits. Surrogate dog mothers successfully gave birth to fertilized dire wolf eggs and now Colossal has three dire wolf puppies living on the company’s expansive preserve.
Dire wolves brought back: See photos of Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi
Colossal also used the technology to give birth to four red wolves, an endangered species. The successful birth of the dire wolves buttresses Colossal’s goals of helping “de-extinct” species and to sustain some endangered species.
“Preserving, expanding, and testing genetic diversity should be done well before important endangered animal species like the red wolf are lost,” said Harvard Medical School geneticist and co-founder of Colossal, George Church in a statement. “The dire wolf is an early example of this, including the largest number of precise genomic edits in a healthy vertebrate so far. A capability that is growing exponentially.”
In ‘Game of Thrones,’ the dire wolf is the sigil, or mascot, of House Stark. Colossal Biosciences has born three dire wolf pups using the ancient DNA from the extinct species.
Here’s what other projects are underway at Colossal Biosciences.
Colossal’s goal to bring back the woolly mammoth and how the woolly mouse fits into the plans
Church and Ben Lamm, a technology and software entrepreneur, cofounded Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences in 2021 to “rapidly advance the field of species de-extinction,” the company said at the time.
Their first announced project: a next-generation woolly mammoth. Using gene editing technology to update Asian elephant DNA, they set out to create a “cold-resistant elephant with all of the core biological traits of the woolly mammoth,” they said at the time. The mammoth could revitalize Arctic grasslands and result in “major climate change-combatting properties including carbon sequestering, methane suppression and light reflection,” the company says on its website.
“It will walk like a woolly mammoth, look like one, sound like one, but most importantly it will be able to inhabit the same ecosystem previously abandoned by the Mammoth’s extinction,” says Colossal, which hopes to have its first woolly mammoth calves by 2028.
An illustration of an adult male woolly mammoth navigates a mountain pass in Arctic Alaska, 17,100 years ago. The image is produced from an original, life-size painting by paleo artist James Havens, which is housed at the University of Alaska Museum of the North.
Earlier this year, Colossal offered a glimpse into its advances with the reveal of the “Colossal Woolly Mouse,” which was born in October 2024 and genetically engineered to have characteristics that could eventually be used in creating the next-generation woolly mammoth embryo to be born by a female elephant.
Mammoth DNA genes were identified and modifications were made in laboratory mice so they would have “dramatically altered coat color, texture, and thickness reminiscent of the woolly mammoth’s core phenotypes” or characteristics, the company said at the time.
“This is a very, very big step for us because it proves that all of the work we’ve been doing for the last three years on the woolly mammoth is exactly what we predicted.” Lamm previously told USA TODAY.
The Colossal Woolly Mouse as bred to have characteristics that could eventually be used in creating a next-generation woolly mammoth embryo to be born by a female elephant.
Advances made on the Tazmanian Tiger
Back in 2022, Colossal said it was working with the University of Melbourne’s Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research, or TIGRR, Lab, to bring back the Australian thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) and reestablish the Tasmanian tiger on the island of Tasmania off the southeast tip of Australia.
Had the tiger not been killed off – a predator, it threatened sheep and livestock and was essentially hunted to extinction by 1936 – it could have helped prevent the spread of a facial tumor disease that is eliminating the Tasmanian devil population, researchers previously said.
In October 2024, Colossal said it had assembled the most complete Tasmanian tiger genome, a major step toward de-extincting the animal, thanks to genetic material harvested from a complete head of an adult thylacine that was skinned and preserved in ethanol.
“The thylacine samples used for our new reference genome are among the best preserved ancient specimens my team has worked with,” Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief science officer, said at the time. “It’s rare to have a sample that allows you to push the envelope in ancient DNA methods to such an extent. We’ve delivered a record-breaking ancient genome that will accelerate our thylacine de-extinction project.”
Colossal, a Texas-based bioscience company, and researchers at the University of Melbourne, want to use genetic engineering to bring back the thylacine, the Tasmanian tiger.
Bringing back the dodo
Two years ago, Colossal added the dodo, which went extinct more than 300 years ago, to the list of animals it’s seeking to bring back. The birds, which were larger than turkeys, were killed for food by Portuguese sailors who discovered them on the island of Mauritius, off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Pigs and other animals brought to the island also ate dodo eggs.
“The dodo is a prime example of a species that became extinct because we – people – made it impossible for them to survive in their native habitat,” said Shapiro, who is on leave from the University of California-Santa Cruz where she led the Paleogenomics lab that sequenced the dodo genome and subsequently created a thylacine genome.
“I particularly look forward to furthering genetic rescue tools focused on birds and avian conservation,” she said at the time.
Colossal chief science officer Beth Shapiro, at left, and Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences, with an image of the dodo, an extinct bird that Colossal has announced it hopes to bring back with its biotech and genetic technology.
Not just dire wolves born at Colossal, red wolves, too
The genetics work done to bring back the dire wolf also led to cloning advances the Colossal researchers used to achieve the birth of four red wolves from surrogate mothers.
An endangered species, there are fewer than 20 red wolves remaining in North America, Colossal says. By adding red wolves born at Colossal, the red wolf population could be boosted – similar to how the gray wolf population in Yellowstone was increased.
In addition to three dire wolves, Colossal has also produced two litters of red wolf puppies, one aged four months seen here.
The reveal of the dire wolves and accompanying news on red wolf advances lead to plenty of commotion and news coverage.
The Interior Secretary Doug Burgum chimed in on the news via social network X (formerly Twitter), saying: “Since the dawn of our nation, it has been innovation – not regulation – that has spawned American greatness. The revival of the Dire Wolf heralds the advent of a thrilling new era of scientific wonder, showcasing how the concept of ‘de-extinction’ can serve as a bedrock for modern species conservation.”
Colossal hopes to work with the U.S. government on repopulating the red wolf.
“The technologies developed on the path to the dire wolf are already opening up new opportunities to rescue critically endangered canids,” said Matt James, Colossal’s chief animal officer and Colossal Foundation executive director. “The creation of less-invasive sampling tools such as our EPC blood cloning platform allows for the conservation community to ramp up biobanking efforts of those species on the brink.”
Contributing: Eric Lagatta and Marina Pitofksy, USA TODAY.
Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY’s Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Colossal Biosciences has ‘de-extinction’ plans beyond the dire wolf
