This isn’t really a distinctly American issue, and what they did isn’t really cloning. But I don’t see harm in modifying a gray wolf to have some attributes of an extinct species as long as the animals are healthy and cared for.
Well first of all what they didn’t wasn’t really cloning it was editing grey wolf genes to produce a phenotype like the dire wolf. Second I don’t really think it has much potential to get out of hand in any way because I can’t think of any profit incentive behind it that would cause this process to get out of hand.
Super cute and cool, but I don’t see the point when we’ve already driven every other wolf species to extinction/near extinction. Feels like a weird power trip to revise a species just to probably hunt that one to extinction again too.
We have no idea if the expression of the dire wolf genes will cause any negative side effects on the pups, though. So, I’d be curious to see if the pups live longer than a few months. Maybe a year (since this wasn’t exactly cloning).
I think it’s interesting to bring back species that went extinct long ago, for scientific research. And for reintroducing species that recently went extinct because of human actions. I don’t think we should be releasing direwolves and wooly mammoths into the wild though!
Well, they’re not really cloned dire wolves, just gray wolves that have been genetically modified to resemble dire wolves. That’s splitting hairs, I know, but as a bio scientist it does mean something different to me.
I’m interested in gene editing technology and stuff like this is a cool exercise in what is possible. I can definitely see the application. As we start to destroy ecosystems and genetically bottleneck species, we may need to artificially create more genetic diversity to keep wild populations healthy.
I feel like there’s a lot of other stuff science could be working on that would be more useful than this BS. Dire wolves died out. They aren’t going to reintroduce them to the wild so it’s basically a modern version of “The Freak Show” – step right up and see a real dire wolf kids!
You want to eff around with genes then why not cure cancer or any of the 1000 other diseases that plague us.
> But many scientists say what Colossal produced this time is not, in fact, the dire wolf. Rather, they say, it is a gray wolf whose genome has been edited to give it some dire-wolf-like traits.
Until I see a peer-reviewed study, I’m going to assume it’s a bullshit publicity stunt to drum up funding.
It is okay, but from what I read, dire wolves are not that much different than regular wolves. They are about the same size as a large timber wolf. If we can get a sabertooth tiger, a wooly mammoth, or a mastodon, then we are talking!
I’m for it so long as it’s done responsibly. There’s always someone who wants to push the limit. It’s probably safer than gain of function research.
At least if they bring back a single pterodactyl it won’t spread to 7 countries via a sneeze and kill the whole blocks meemaws. All about perspective. 😅
I think they should focus on receiving species humans directly killed off, not species that went extinct due to the ice age ending or other huge climactic changes. I haven’t read up on how direwolves went extinct, but maybe start with things like the tasmanian tiger (thylacine), passenger pigeons, or, heck, maybe even the dodo.
The original Jurassic Park book was about how humans couldn’t control genetic engineering no matter how hard they tried. Now it’s a monster movie with dinosaurs chasing people around.
People that think this isn’t like jurassic park because wolves aren’t velociraptors are missing the point
While gene editing is cool, they’re really misinforming the public about what these animals are. They’re not dire wolves. It seems they were made to look like the GoT fantasy version of dire wolves since people don’t know any better. The actual dire wolf was a different genus that branched off from the Canid group around 9 million years ago. They didn’t gene splice as far as I know, they just took a few genes and edit them to be like a few of the dire wolves genes, like a bigger size and wider head. Also, the fact that they’re born white is a dog trait. Even Arctic wolves are born brown/grey.
It just seems to me that they’re pushing for more investors.
Depends on the animal and how they went extinct. It would be a crime to resurrect an animal who cannot survive let alone thrive in our current climates, or even worse, something released into the wild and becoming yet another invasive species that has to be dealt with. If they were extinct due to humanity though I would be perfectly fine with it. Though I believe we are very far off from this happening.
Not crazy about it. Those animals went extinct for a reason, yeah? Would they not be subjected to the same hardships that caused them to go extinct? Are we just causing them to potentially suffer? I guess if you want to Jurassic Park this shit and stuff ’em all in a zoo you could keep their species alive in captivity until the Earth dies.
Science is rad…also, as someone who works with, in and around science, we take this stuff too far just because we can. To quote a great fictional character…
“John, you were so preoccupied with whether you could, you didn’t consider whether you should”
My understanding is these are far from being clones and even further from the species the company that made them is claiming. Seems so far from what they say one would almost have to assume there’s some type of con going on.
They’re named Remus, Romulus, and Khaleesi and are in an undisclosed location in the northern part of the US. I mean…
Some of me says “why the fuck not, we’re doing crazier shit?”, the higher functioning brain bits say “patching 14 parts of dna is not bringing something back. And why would you not pick thylacines with their viable dna?”
For the second part, that they modified it, is unsurprising. But freaky still.
AI has kind overshadowed the massive advancements with genetics and gene manipulation. It’s probably the most groundbreaking thing happening on the planet.
It’s interesting science, but it doesn’t really get me hyped up. I can’t imagine habitats are any more hospitable to extinct animals than when they died out.
I just watched a Hank green video highlighting other cool science and activities they did while working towards the dire wolf headline and I have to say that that is much cooler and much better for conservation. Here it is timestamped, but I think the whole video is good: https://youtu.be/Ar0zgedLyTw?t=7m40s
With the way this was done it does show promise in helping restore populations of severely endangered animals. Here’s hoping we may be able to one day truly bolster the NC population of Red Wolves.
It’s cool as hell but something deep in my subconscious tells me it’s a horrible idea.. It’s the exact same feeling I get when I read about researchers thawing 10,000 year old ice and finding living organisms.. Maybe we should leave that shit alone..
One of my coworkers announced that they had “undeaded” the dire wolf and I had to gently correct him. I think it’s an interesting field of research, but one that we’re far from being at the point of Jurassic Park in.
They didn’t really clone extinct animals because they messed with gray wolf DNA to alter the appearance and then used a dog as a surrogate.
They only ever report the initial birth on these things. Genetically modifying DNA leads to issues with autoimmune, organs… basically damaging a strand that then causes defects.
That is the cruelty of this type of practice “just for fun” to see if it is possible. There is a living thing created that will likely suffer, have a shortened lifespan and have to adapt to multiple disabilities. It’s all fun and games until you see the suffering of the in innocent animal.
the dire wolf project isn’t a clone or a revival of the species this has been done before all they do is gene edit and have wolves breed into the dog they think resembles the dire wolf palaeontologists have already called the project problematic because the company admitted it made it have a white coat specifically for game of thrones fans mummified and fossil evidence shows its coat would have been more like a maned wolf
Tamaskan is another dog breed that has been brought back from “Extinction” they took Alsatians and huskies and bred them specifically so each generation had wolf like traits the end result is an extremely big dog breed that superficially resembles what the first wolves we tamed would have looked like but its still not a wolf its basically a husky
I’m honestly in awe, but I’m not sure how it’s going to go long term. It’s very interesting but I’m not sure how well extinct species (or genetically engineered ones similar to them) are going to fit in the same ecosystems that they not only went extinct from but that we have changed through global warming and globalization moving animals around to places they didn’t start.
There are wild pythons in Florida from the pet trade alone. Dealing with species that have been extinct since long before humans were so much on the ecosystem seems questionable. I hope there’s lots of studies before rewilding efforts.
I also have 0 idea about their temperament and natural fear of humans. I’m guessing these original ones will be very handled and tested with little effort to keep them from bonding with humans. We need the information about them and they will never be intended for release. Then they have babies and those babies have babies, and they make sure they aren’t inbred until they get a breeding population going. Then they’ll be going more and more hands off until they’re having babies with little to no human interaction. Those could be worked into a rewilding project, but we’re looking at years.
Seeing them was so interesting. Watching these videos and I know they are incredibly special. There’s been nothing like this in thousands of years! Then they’re just extremely big dogs that would probably eat my face, doing dog things, unaware that they are literally the only 3 of them that exist!
I feel conflicted. Obviously it’s cool from a scientific standpoint, but also I don’t believe for a second that this technology will be used for society’s good. See Jurassic Park for references.
Comments
This isn’t really a distinctly American issue, and what they did isn’t really cloning. But I don’t see harm in modifying a gray wolf to have some attributes of an extinct species as long as the animals are healthy and cared for.
It’s cool, but I wouldn’t say it’s something I have a strong ethical opinion on.
They’re cute. So that’s cool.
I insist they make wooly mammoths.
Well first of all what they didn’t wasn’t really cloning it was editing grey wolf genes to produce a phenotype like the dire wolf. Second I don’t really think it has much potential to get out of hand in any way because I can’t think of any profit incentive behind it that would cause this process to get out of hand.
Science is neat.
I feel they should make a park of extinct animals, maybe from the Jurassic period….
They are fake dire wolves
Super cute and cool, but I don’t see the point when we’ve already driven every other wolf species to extinction/near extinction. Feels like a weird power trip to revise a species just to probably hunt that one to extinction again too.
A guy named Michael wrote a book about why this is a bad idea.
i never seen a wolf, so reviving more species of wolves won’t really impact my life
It’s very cool!
We have no idea if the expression of the dire wolf genes will cause any negative side effects on the pups, though. So, I’d be curious to see if the pups live longer than a few months. Maybe a year (since this wasn’t exactly cloning).
I think it’s interesting to bring back species that went extinct long ago, for scientific research. And for reintroducing species that recently went extinct because of human actions. I don’t think we should be releasing direwolves and wooly mammoths into the wild though!
Well, they’re not really cloned dire wolves, just gray wolves that have been genetically modified to resemble dire wolves. That’s splitting hairs, I know, but as a bio scientist it does mean something different to me.
I’m interested in gene editing technology and stuff like this is a cool exercise in what is possible. I can definitely see the application. As we start to destroy ecosystems and genetically bottleneck species, we may need to artificially create more genetic diversity to keep wild populations healthy.
I feel like there’s a lot of other stuff science could be working on that would be more useful than this BS. Dire wolves died out. They aren’t going to reintroduce them to the wild so it’s basically a modern version of “The Freak Show” – step right up and see a real dire wolf kids!
You want to eff around with genes then why not cure cancer or any of the 1000 other diseases that plague us.
From Scientific American:
> But many scientists say what Colossal produced this time is not, in fact, the dire wolf. Rather, they say, it is a gray wolf whose genome has been edited to give it some dire-wolf-like traits.
Until I see a peer-reviewed study, I’m going to assume it’s a bullshit publicity stunt to drum up funding.
It is okay, but from what I read, dire wolves are not that much different than regular wolves. They are about the same size as a large timber wolf. If we can get a sabertooth tiger, a wooly mammoth, or a mastodon, then we are talking!
The whole thing feels like a scam to me.
I think it’s super cool. The little dire wolves are adorable
[removed]
I don’t give a fuck boiiiiii
I’m for it so long as it’s done responsibly. There’s always someone who wants to push the limit. It’s probably safer than gain of function research.
At least if they bring back a single pterodactyl it won’t spread to 7 countries via a sneeze and kill the whole blocks meemaws. All about perspective. 😅
I think they should focus on receiving species humans directly killed off, not species that went extinct due to the ice age ending or other huge climactic changes. I haven’t read up on how direwolves went extinct, but maybe start with things like the tasmanian tiger (thylacine), passenger pigeons, or, heck, maybe even the dodo.
Why not. The anaunaki did it to us humans.
I want one
The original Jurassic Park book was about how humans couldn’t control genetic engineering no matter how hard they tried. Now it’s a monster movie with dinosaurs chasing people around.
People that think this isn’t like jurassic park because wolves aren’t velociraptors are missing the point
While gene editing is cool, they’re really misinforming the public about what these animals are. They’re not dire wolves. It seems they were made to look like the GoT fantasy version of dire wolves since people don’t know any better. The actual dire wolf was a different genus that branched off from the Canid group around 9 million years ago. They didn’t gene splice as far as I know, they just took a few genes and edit them to be like a few of the dire wolves genes, like a bigger size and wider head. Also, the fact that they’re born white is a dog trait. Even Arctic wolves are born brown/grey.
It just seems to me that they’re pushing for more investors.
Depends on the animal and how they went extinct. It would be a crime to resurrect an animal who cannot survive let alone thrive in our current climates, or even worse, something released into the wild and becoming yet another invasive species that has to be dealt with. If they were extinct due to humanity though I would be perfectly fine with it. Though I believe we are very far off from this happening.
We’ve seen this documentary, Dr Ian Malcolm Ellison or very well.
Not crazy about it. Those animals went extinct for a reason, yeah? Would they not be subjected to the same hardships that caused them to go extinct? Are we just causing them to potentially suffer? I guess if you want to Jurassic Park this shit and stuff ’em all in a zoo you could keep their species alive in captivity until the Earth dies.
Wolves
But dire.
Fundamentally I’m against it but I think it would be awesome to breed them and reintroduce them into the world.
I’m still feeling like it’s a misleading title
I’m still waiting for the new woolly mammoths to drop.
Science is rad…also, as someone who works with, in and around science, we take this stuff too far just because we can. To quote a great fictional character…
“John, you were so preoccupied with whether you could, you didn’t consider whether you should”
While I think it is cool from a science point of view, I think science is outrunning ethics and regulations.
Not a great idea. So much can go wrong.
I think its… fucking weird? Like… I don’t think its a clone, but a new genetically modifid bigass predator. Like cool as hell but weird.
I think it’s cool as fuck
My understanding is these are far from being clones and even further from the species the company that made them is claiming. Seems so far from what they say one would almost have to assume there’s some type of con going on.
Current events aren’t normally allowed, but as a reward for asking about something other than Trump or tariffs, I’ll allow it.
Let dead giants lie.
They’re named Remus, Romulus, and Khaleesi and are in an undisclosed location in the northern part of the US. I mean…
Some of me says “why the fuck not, we’re doing crazier shit?”, the higher functioning brain bits say “patching 14 parts of dna is not bringing something back. And why would you not pick thylacines with their viable dna?”
For the second part, that they modified it, is unsurprising. But freaky still.
AI has kind overshadowed the massive advancements with genetics and gene manipulation. It’s probably the most groundbreaking thing happening on the planet.
It is pretty cool, but I’m still waiting on the wooly mammoth we were promised like 20 years ago, lol.
You can clone your dogs now. Why you would want to, I don’t know.
So I looked into it a little bit, they actually don’t contain any Dire Wolf DNA so it’s kind of a false advertisement situation
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
The science is cool. I do question the ethics of genetic modification on a threatened animal to bring back an extinct animal.
It’s interesting science, but it doesn’t really get me hyped up. I can’t imagine habitats are any more hospitable to extinct animals than when they died out.
I just watched a Hank green video highlighting other cool science and activities they did while working towards the dire wolf headline and I have to say that that is much cooler and much better for conservation. Here it is timestamped, but I think the whole video is good: https://youtu.be/Ar0zgedLyTw?t=7m40s
For. We just need to leave their habitat alone
Fuck yeah! Set a bunch of them loose in Central Park. Keep it going too. I would love to see wooly mammoths.
I like cloning animals. Shout out Dolly the sheep from Blacksburg Virginia
With the way this was done it does show promise in helping restore populations of severely endangered animals. Here’s hoping we may be able to one day truly bolster the NC population of Red Wolves.
I am in favor of the advancement of civilization through science and the ethical experimentation on animals.
Here are some afflictions that can theoretically be cured as a result of genetic modification experiments:
It’s cool as hell but something deep in my subconscious tells me it’s a horrible idea.. It’s the exact same feeling I get when I read about researchers thawing 10,000 year old ice and finding living organisms.. Maybe we should leave that shit alone..
One of my coworkers announced that they had “undeaded” the dire wolf and I had to gently correct him. I think it’s an interesting field of research, but one that we’re far from being at the point of Jurassic Park in.
I think it’s cool. We just don’t want some old invasive species getting out into the food chain. I would like to see them bring back some mammoths
They didn’t really clone extinct animals because they messed with gray wolf DNA to alter the appearance and then used a dog as a surrogate.
They only ever report the initial birth on these things. Genetically modifying DNA leads to issues with autoimmune, organs… basically damaging a strand that then causes defects.
That is the cruelty of this type of practice “just for fun” to see if it is possible. There is a living thing created that will likely suffer, have a shortened lifespan and have to adapt to multiple disabilities. It’s all fun and games until you see the suffering of the in innocent animal.
It’s an amazing feat of science and I have no issue with it. We are the direct cause of countless species’ extinctions so it only makes sense,
imo.
I don’t see the point.
the dire wolf project isn’t a clone or a revival of the species this has been done before all they do is gene edit and have wolves breed into the dog they think resembles the dire wolf palaeontologists have already called the project problematic because the company admitted it made it have a white coat specifically for game of thrones fans mummified and fossil evidence shows its coat would have been more like a maned wolf
Tamaskan is another dog breed that has been brought back from “Extinction” they took Alsatians and huskies and bred them specifically so each generation had wolf like traits the end result is an extremely big dog breed that superficially resembles what the first wolves we tamed would have looked like but its still not a wolf its basically a husky
I’m honestly in awe, but I’m not sure how it’s going to go long term. It’s very interesting but I’m not sure how well extinct species (or genetically engineered ones similar to them) are going to fit in the same ecosystems that they not only went extinct from but that we have changed through global warming and globalization moving animals around to places they didn’t start.
There are wild pythons in Florida from the pet trade alone. Dealing with species that have been extinct since long before humans were so much on the ecosystem seems questionable. I hope there’s lots of studies before rewilding efforts.
I also have 0 idea about their temperament and natural fear of humans. I’m guessing these original ones will be very handled and tested with little effort to keep them from bonding with humans. We need the information about them and they will never be intended for release. Then they have babies and those babies have babies, and they make sure they aren’t inbred until they get a breeding population going. Then they’ll be going more and more hands off until they’re having babies with little to no human interaction. Those could be worked into a rewilding project, but we’re looking at years.
Seeing them was so interesting. Watching these videos and I know they are incredibly special. There’s been nothing like this in thousands of years! Then they’re just extremely big dogs that would probably eat my face, doing dog things, unaware that they are literally the only 3 of them that exist!
I feel conflicted. Obviously it’s cool from a scientific standpoint, but also I don’t believe for a second that this technology will be used for society’s good. See Jurassic Park for references.
I saw that movie. It ended badly. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should do something.
Bring on the raptor chickens next
A genetically modified wolf, what could go wrong?
Bring on the Sabertooth Tigers.