A species of wolf that died out some 12,500 years ago lives again as the “world’s first successfully de-extincted animal,” according to Colossal Biosciences, a biotech company based in Dallas, Texas, the United States. Colossal scientists have created three dire wolf pups by using ancient DNA, cloning and gene-editing technology to alter the genes of a gray wolf, the prehistoric dire wolf’s closest living relative, the company announced last week. The result is essentially a hybrid species similar in appearance to its extinct forerunner. The dire wolf, Aenocyon dirus, which was the inspiration for the fearsome canine featured in the HBO TV series “Game of Thrones,” was a top predator that once roamed North America. Dire wolves were larger in size than gray wolves and “had a slightly wider head, light thick fur and stronger jaw,” the company said. Colossal has been working toward resurrecting the mammoth, dodo and Tasmanian tiger since 2021, but the company had not previously publicized its work on dire wolves. “This massive milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works,” said Ben Lamm, Colossal’s co-founder and CEO. “Our team took DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies.” The three dire wolves are living on an 809-hectare site at an undisclosed location enclosed by 3-meter-tall “zoo-grade” fencing, where they are monitored by security personnel, drones and live camera feeds. Using ancient DNA extracted from two dire wolf fossils, Colossal’s scientists and collaborators said they were able to assemble two high-quality Aenocyon dirus genomes, or complete sets of genetic information. The team compared the genomes with those of living canids such as wolves, jackals and foxes to identify the genetic variants for traits specific to dire wolves, such as white coats and longer, thick fur. Dire wolves and gray wolves shared 99.5% of their DNA. “We aren’t trying to bring something back that’s 100% genetically identical to another species. Our goal with de-extinction is always create functional copies of these extinct species. We were focusing on identifying variants that we knew would lead to one of these key traits,” said Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief science officer. The company then used the information from the genetic analysis to alter gray wolf cells, making 20 edits in 14 genes before cloning the most promising cell lines and transferring them into donor eggs from domestic dogs. “So we can take these eggs and remove the nucleus, and then insert the nucleus that we’ve edited from that gray wolf cell, and that is what we clone,” Shapiro explained. Healthy developed embryos were then transferred into domestic dogs that acted as surrogate moms. Two male dire wolf pups were born on Oct. 1, 2024, while a female pup was born on Jan. 30, 2025, according to Colossal Biosciences. (SD-Agencies) 位于美國德克薩斯州達拉斯的生物技術公司Colossal Biosciences宣布他們成功復活了約1.25萬年前滅絕的史前巨狼。該公司上周宣布，科研團隊通過提取古代化石DNA，結合克隆和基因編輯技術改造灰狼（恐狼現存最近的近親）基因，成功培育出三只恐狼幼崽。這種混種生物在外形上與已滅絕的祖先極為相似。 曾作為HBO劇集《權力的游戲》中冰原狼原型的恐狼（學名Aenocyon dirus），曾是橫行北美洲的頂級掠食者。恐狼體型較灰狼更大，頭部略寬，被毛淺而濃密，頜部力量更強。 Colossal公司自2021年起一直致力于猛犸象、渡渡鳥和袋狼的復活計劃，但此前從未公布過恐狼研究項目。“這個重大里程碑首次驗證了我們端到端復活技術的可行性，”公司聯合創始人兼CEO本·拉姆表示，“團隊從1.3萬年前的牙齒和7.2萬年前的頭骨中提取DNA，培育出了健康的恐狼幼崽。” 目前這三只恐狼生活在809公頃的封閉區域內，地點保密，周圍設有3米高的“動物園級”圍欄，由安保人員、無人機和實時監控系統全天候監護。科研團隊通過分析兩個恐狼化石提取的古代DNA，成功拼出兩套高質量的恐狼全基因組。 研究人員將恐狼基因組與現存犬科動物（如狼、豺、狐貍）進行比對，鎖定了決定白色被毛、濃密長毛等恐狼特征的關鍵基因變異。恐狼與灰狼的DNA相似度達99.5%。 “我們并非要復制100%相同的物種，”首席科學官貝絲·夏皮羅解釋，“復活計劃的目標是培育功能性替代物種。我們專注于編輯那些決定關鍵特征的基因變異。” 研究團隊根據基因分析結果對灰狼細胞進行改造，在14個基因中完成20處編輯后，對最優細胞序列進行克隆并植入家犬的卵細胞。 夏皮羅進一步說明：“我們將這些卵細胞的細胞核取出，替換為編輯過的灰狼細胞核進行克隆。”發育健康的胚胎隨后被植入代孕獵犬體內。 該公司透露，兩只雄性恐狼幼崽于2024年10月1日出生，雌性幼崽則于2025年1月30日降生。 (Translated by DeepSeek) | 