There are several ironies in this “dire wolf de-extinction” story of recent headlines.
The first is that no, we didn’t bring the dire wolf back from extinction.
The scientists at Colossal Biosciences retrieved dire wolf DNA from a pair of fossils (a tooth, and an ear bone). This DNA is 99% identical to today’s gray wolves… but we really need to look at what that means. Humans and chimpanzees are also 99% identical, courtesy of sharing a common ancestor from 6 million years ago. And unsurprisingly, Colossal identified around 80 dire wolf genes that were “dramatically distinct” from gray wolves.
So what exactly did Colossal do? They extracted gray wolf blood cells. They modified 20 genetic sites within gray wolf genes, using the dire wolf genome as a kind of road map. Then they grew the results into what would become three wolf pups: Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi.
So they didn’t resurrect an extinct animal. They took an existing animal and reshaped it so it kinda resembles what we think a dire wolf was like. That’s hardly the same thing as de-extinction.
The second irony is that this really is like Jurassic Park.
I don’t mean in the obvious way–bringing back bygone species–but in the ugly truth behind the park. See, in the book, John Hammond was described as a “showman” who raised money for his venture by carrying around an astonishing miniature elephant. Except the elephant wasn’t a de-extincted creature: it was a modern elephant hormonally modified to look like something we’d imagine was prehistoric. In short, it was a showy lie. I couldn’t help but think of this when Colossal recently tinkered with mouse DNA to create a “wooly mouse” (the company eventually wants to make a wooly mammoth).
Likewise, in Jurassic Park the dinosaurs are modified creatures. They were made with dino DNA, as well as avian, reptilian, and amphibian DNA. That would be a fascinating achievement… but it’s not de-extinction. It’s chimerical engineering. They might as well have made a manticore, too.
A third irony is that right in the midst of this announcement, Congress has been debating whether to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list… allowing it to be hunted again. This at a time when we’ve learned that the reintroduction of gray wolves has had a marvelous cascade effect in places like Yellowstone: more wolves means less elk to strip away important trees that beavers need to build dams, and birds need for habitat. The dams themselves create habitats for fish and frogs and other creatures, with a positive effect on the water table. We’re actually watching an ecosystem heal before our eyes.
So what does all this mean?
In order to make informed decisions about our world, we need the correct information. We need to dig down beneath the showy headlines. In short, we need better media hygiene.
There may be an argument in favor of reversing the extinction of, say, the thylacine (which was mercilessly hunted until the last one died in captivity in 1936). There may be beneficial trickle-down knowledge stemming from Colossal’s research that can be applied to other areas of biomedicine.
We can’t have those kinds of debates, however, if we’re coming at this from a misinformed or misrepresented angle. This applies to everything from claims of election fraud to the idea that alien megastructures are beneath the pyramids.
Facts matter. And fact-based discussions are needed in our world more than ever.