I say this all with the humility of a man who has one too many wolf tattoos (with more to come), I was just as excited initially to see the claims that, through a miracle of modern science, Dire Wolves were brought back from extinction. Across my feed, in my dms, my group chat–I mean my mom even sent me youtube videos, all claiming that this Late Pleistocene era canine had been brought back from the dead after 12,500 years of forever sleep. There is an anthropologist I follow by the name of David Ian Howe, who specializes in Ethnocynology (the study of dogs in human cultural context) and on my stories I watched him repudiate these claims to much acclaim, and since I respected his lecture on the History of Dogs he delivered at the University of Wyoming, I too decided to do some analysis and look beyond the headlines. My findings also yielded that there is nothing that scientifically substantiates we’ve actually brought Dire Wolves back from extinction; the simple truth being a biotech company did the “designer gene” treatment on modern gray wolves.
“It is all very misleading,” Vincent Lynch, a professor of biological sciences at the University at Buffalo, told NPR in an emailed statement. “It is not a dire wolf; it is a gray wolf clone with some mutations that make it superficially resemble a dire wolf.”
The fact that all of this made the cover of ‘Time’ magazine, where they made this same claim of “de-extinction”, is yet another example of how brain dead mainstream journalistic standards have become, or rather, an indication that our press has been bought and paid for a ‘billion’ times over. Receipts first, theories later.
So Colossal Biosciences, a biotech company, has used gene-editing techniques to modify the DNA of modern gray wolves (Canis lupus [dog wolf]) by utilizing gene altering technology to alter the physical traits of 3 wolves (Remus, Romulus, and Khalessi) to slightly resemble Dire Wolves (Aenocyon dirus [fearsome dog]). These were two distinct species that diverged around 5.7 million years ago. What the scientists at Colossal Biosciences did was analyze ancient DNA from dire wolf fossils to identify key genetic differences between dire wolves and gray wolves. They then edited the genomes of gray wolves at approximately 20 sites across 14 genes to reflect these dire wolf traits. Notably, no ancient dire wolf DNA was directly inserted; instead, modern gray wolf DNA was modified to mimic certain dire wolf characteristics. The claim circulating that Dire Wolves have been “De-Extinct” is massively exaggerated and false, as there is nothing in the 3 sired pups DNA that resembles the genus of dire wolves. They are modified gray wolves that were given “designer genes” to look differently, the end.
So, why the massive PR push for this unsubstantiated claim?
You gotta spend money to make money, baby. Companies like Colossal Biosciences (which is leading this dire wolf project) rely heavily on the backing of investor interest, venture capital, and public support to fund their massively expensive biotech research. Anddd what gets attention? Jurassic Park levels of marketing and PR. What better way to start a public discourse than the alluring threat of bringing back extinct apex predators during geologic periods where we sapiens were NOT at the top of the food chain?
“De-extinction” is a marketing wet dream, a revolutionary and profitable buzzword—even if it’s an absolutely biased and unsubstantiated claim; nuance doesn’t go viral.
“Farm to table GMO wolves now available with 14 altered genes,” won’t trend.
Now saying, “Dire Wolves brought back from extinction”, there is your clickbait headline.
Now, lastly as a personal anecdote, I have a massive fucking problem with all of this (and no, it’s not cause I have a hyper fixation with wolves being perhaps the most vital fulcrum that pivots the balance of our terrestrial ecosystem [okay, maybe a little]. While it may not provide any evidence of any semblance of de-extinction for dire wolves, it certainly illuminates that integrity in mainstream media is disintegrating, specifically where journalistic reporting is concerned. “Listen to the Joe Rogan episode”, is not a credible news source, especially when the guest Ben Lamm (the billionaire founder of Colossal Biosciences) has every incentive to embellish this narrative to stimulate our imaginations, which will in turn stimulate funding for his company. THINK, MARK.
Why this worries me is because this was a viral “news” story, and people got caught up in the headlines without reading the context of the claims they purported. In this age of misinformation, these news stories crest in a wave of sensationalism and we all get caught up in the current. We absolutely must advocate and incentivize a culture of fact checking, especially when our once esteemed journalistic enterprises so clearly serve to distribute the profit engineered narratives of the billionaires that have bought and paid for them. You want to know what was brought back from extinction because of rabid sensationalism like this?
How about putting that on your fucking cover, Times.
Ian Galloway
4/6/2025