The recent viral news that Colossal Biosciences had successfully “cloned” Dire Wolves was a public relations coup for the US-based biotechnology and genetic engineering company and its investors, including investor and Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin himself.
The feat has been heralded as a triumph of modern science, fueling hope that humanity might somehow be able to undo the damage it has done to the world’s ecosystems. But behind the media spectacle is a complex scientific and ethical debate.
HOW THEY MADE IT HAPPEN
What Colossal Biosciences did was to edit the genes of existing Gray Wolves based on DNA samples extracted from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull of the extinct Dire Wolf.
These snippets of Dire Wolf DNA were analyzed to identify specific gene variants associated with what are believed to be their distinctive traits, such as a robust build, thick white fur, and larger-than-average size when compared to modern wolves. The scientists then spliced these specific genes into the genome of Gray Wolves, the Dire Wolf’s closest living relatives.
Next, the edited nuclei were inserted into egg cells from Gray Wolves that had their original genetic material removed. These eggs were then implanted into domestic Dog surrogates, which ultimately gave birth to puppies that exhibited traits that the researchers claim are reminiscent of the original Dire Wolves.
Never mind the fact that nobody is entirely sure what Dire Wolves actually looked like, much less how they behaved in the environment of the distant past.
A LOT OF GUESSWORK
The above explanation, though greatly simplified, highlights many of the key difficulties in reconstructing and resurrecting a long-extinct species — specifically the large amount of conjecture and careful guessing involved, which can make the process seem largely arbitrary.
Certainly, the move to have the clones sport white coats was one such decision: “A white coat might make sense if you are in a snowy landscape, but one of the places where Dire Wolves were most abundant was around Los Angeles and the tar pits, and it was not a snowy landscape even in the Ice Age. If you look at mammals in this region today, they are not white. I am just confused by the declaration that Dire Wolves are back,” paleontologist Mairin Balisi told the MIT Technology Review.
CAN VERSUS SHOULD
While the scientific achievement is significant, it raises the question of whether resurrecting extinct species is a good idea.
Advocates argue that such efforts could serve as a blueprint for saving endangered species by expanding genetic diversity and potentially restoring lost ecosystems.
Techniques refined in the Dire Wolf project could potentially be used to boost the populations of critically endangered species around the world.
However, reintroducing extinct species — or even just genetically-engineered versions of them — into modern ecosystems poses other problems. The ecological systems that Dire Wolves once inhabited have long since evolved, their ecological niches now likely occupied by other species or perhaps even disappeared completely.
And while careful genetic editing might be able to replicate the physical traits of extinct animals, it cannot account for the complex interactions between genes and the environment that shaped the behavior, physiology, and survival strategies of the original animals.
“If it looks like a Duck, walks like a Duck, and quacks like a Duck, it’s a Duck (but) what we have is (just) something that looks like a Duck. We’re not sure if it walks like a Duck or behaves like a Duck,” explains Nic Lawrence, a paleontologist at New Zealand’s University of Otago who was contacted by Vox magazine for independent comment.
The ecological systems that Dire Wolves once inhabited have long since evolved, their ecological niches now likely occupied by other species or perhaps even disappeared completely.
DEBATING THE WHY
Just as with Martin’s books, this is a very complex story. Why are we doing this at all? Is the goal to bring back the past, or to use genetic technology to better protect existing species?
The questions it raises require long-term observation, study, and debate. With any luck, we might find some answers before Martin finishes his epic A Song of Ice and Fire saga.
But maybe don’t hold your breath for it.
