Colossal Biosciences births dire wolf, targets mammoth
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- Colossal Biosciences is valued at $10.2 billion after raising hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from investors such as Tiger Woods and Paris Hilton.
- Colossal Biosciences announced that it produced three newborn pups it it calls “dire wolves,” claiming a de‑extinction of a species extinct for over 10,000 years.
- Colossal Biosciences plans to birth a woolly mammoth within the next two years and later resurrect the dodo, using CRISPR‑edited genomes of closely related living animals.
- Colossal Biosciences edited 14 of roughly 19,000 gray‑wolf genes to create hybrid pups with snow‑colored fur, larger size, and greater cold resistance.
- Vincent Lynch, an evolutionary developmental biologist at the University at Buffalo, says the company’s “dire wolves” are merely genetically modified gray wolves and that the species definition used is outdated.
- Doug Burgum, Trump’s secretary of the interior, suggested that de‑extinction could replace habitat protection, a view the company says is mischaracterized.
- Ben Lamm, the company’s CEO, said Jurassic Park taught people about DNA and that the extinction crisis creates a moral obligation to act, positioning de‑extinction as a way to engage the public in conservation.
Why it matters: The $10.2 billion venture could shift billions of dollars from traditional conservation to high‑tech de‑extinction, rewarding investors and the company while critics warn it creates a moral hazard that may erode habitat protection and destabilize ecosystems if engineered animals are released.
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