Scientists revive the terrible wolf, or anything near

For more than a decade, scientists chased the idea of ​​reviving extinct species, a process called sometimes Get rid of. Now, it seems that a company called Colossal Biosisciences has done it, or anything close, with a wolf, giant, it became popular with the TV series “Game of Thrones”.

In 2021, a separate team of scientists managed to recover DNA from the terrible fossils of wolves, which became extinct about 13,000 years ago. With the discovery of additional DNA, the enormous researchers now liberated 20 gray wolves to excite animals with the main features of terrible wolves. Then they created fetuses of the liberated gray wolf cells, planted them in alternative dog mothers and waited to be born.

The result is three healthy wolves – two males are 6 months old and a two -month -old female, called Romulus, Remos and Khalisi – who have some terrible wolves.

It is large, for one reason, and it has thick, pale coats that are not present in gray wolves. Hard, which was estimated at 10 billion dollars In January, wolves maintain a special facility with an area of ​​2000 acres at an unknown location in the northern United States.

Beth Shapiro, the chief scientific official at Colossal, described the wolf puppies as the first successful case of disposal. “We are creating these functional copies of something that was alive,” she said in an interview.

The animals will remain in captivity. But the technology developed by the company can help maintain the species that have not yet become extinct, such as the threat to the danger in a critical way Red wolfWhich is largely limited to North Carolina.

In 2022, Hybrid wolf red wolf It was discovered in Texas and Louisiana. On Monday, Colossal also announced that it had produced four cloning of hybrid. Virtually, the introduction of these cloned animals into North Carolina can improve the genetic diversity of the red wolf population there and help the species to avoid extinction.

Over the years, scientists have suggested different ways to revive lost species. Suppose, for example, they have recovered a healthy cell of the frozen sacrifice of the Sufi mammoth. The cell may be dissolved and used to create a cloning mammoth.

Entrepreneurs and scholars who Enormous In 2021 he took a different path. They analyzed the old DNA to determine the main mutations that made the extinct species distinct from live relatives. Then the researchers manufactures DNA for a living relative and uses these genes to produce viable animals. The animals that have been genetically identical to the extinct species will not be identical in decisive ways.

The enormous high -level experiences began on the Sufi mammoths DodoNo. without a flying bird, it has become extinct three centuries ago. Then the challenges appeared.

For one, while it is relatively easy to make one modification to the animal DNA, scientists were hoping to make dozens of modifications. Then there was an issue of animal production of modified DNA. The researchers in Clossal depicted the growing mammoth embryos in the mothers of the Asian elephant, but no one was carried out in fertilization in the laboratory with elephants. To revive Dudu, they will have a moderate bird fetus maneuver in a difficult egg.

In 2023, the massive team began focusing on terrible wolves as easier targeted species. The terrible wolves are linked to dogs, so that scientists can benefit from the years of searching Dogs cloning and Planting dog embryos.

“We have done a lot of work on dogs, because people love everyone’s favorite gray wolf.”

Dr. Shapiro, who joined Colossal in 2024, was part of the team that regained the DNA of soft wolf from fossils in 2021. But this work only regained the effects of genetic materials. In Colossal, she and her colleagues decided to search for more wolf DNA, in the hope of understanding the biology of the extinct species better-to revive the animal.

“It was the simplest way to get a predictable result,” said Dr. Shapiro.

The team took a new look at the terrible wolf fossils, using new ways to insulate the DNA. This time they reached the Grand Prix, and discovered a wealth of genetic materials in two 13,000-year-old Havirin from Ohio and a 72,000 skull from Idaho. The terrible wolf genomics allowed Dr. Shapiro and its colleagues to rebuild the history of terrible wolves in more detail.

Split wolves have turned into affiliation with the same proportions that led to the emergence of the African wolves, and the African wild dogs that live today. The wonderful wolf has separated from the main branch about 4.5 million years ago. After that, about 2.6 million years ago, severe wolves have overlapped with other species, including the ancestors of gray wolves today and wolves.

Dire Wolves took control of the southern Canada and the United States, according to Julie Machine, the excavation scientist at De Mine University worked on the old DNA project. They surpassed gray wolves, as they were 25 percent larger and have huge teeth and jaws. Horse hunting, pesson and possibly mammoth. When many types of prey are extinct – perhaps partially due Human hunters – The wonderful wolf may be condemned, and wipe the gray wolf from northern Canada and Alaska to fill the environmental void.

Dr. Mishint, Gray Wolves and Gray Wolves found more than 99 percent genetically identical. Eighty genes were greatly distinguished. Some people are known to affect the size of dogs and living wolves – which indicates that they were responsible for the great bodies of terrible wolves.

The most surprising is the discovery that terrible wolves carried genes for a light coat, and the hair may be thick and dense. Dr. Shapiro and her colleagues prepare a paper describing these results.

A recipe for a terrible wolf

With a list of terrible wolf gendens on hand, scientists at COLOSSAL began their fading project.

First, isolate the cells from the blood of gray wolves and grow in a dish. There, it was with the wolf DNA.

Ten years ago, scientists changed one gene in the bitel to give them Big muscles. Since then, the researchers have learned how to release many genes simultaneously in the DNA of mammals. For the wonderful wolf project, the Colossal team began to liberate 20 genes, prompting technology to its current borders.

Scientists presented terrible wolf mutations to 15 gene. But they did not provide the remaining five, because previous studies showed that these five mutations caused deafness and blindness in gray wolves.

Therefore, the huge team found mutations for those five genes in dogs and gray wolves without causing diseases. They presented these five backups in the gray wolf cells.

Dr. Shapiro said: “It is a thin line that you must go.” “You want to be able to revive these apparent patterns, but you don’t want to do something bad for the animal.”

Then the researchers transferred the numbered DNA from the gray wolf blood cells to an empty dog ​​egg. They created dozens of these eggs, which they planted in large dogs that were alternative mothers.

Most embryos failed to develop, but four were born. One of them died from the intestine that she was tearing 10 days later, but the autopsy showed that the death was not the result of a harmful boom.

James, chief animal official in Colossal, has supervised pregnancy and childbirth. He could say that the experiments were successful at the moment when the white coat was observed from the puppy.

Dr. James said: “This was the first flash of White is a real slap in the face.” “You will stick to my memory forever.”

Two puppies, Romulus and Rimos, were named for the legendary founders of Rome, who grew up by a wolf. The third puppy, Khalisi, was called a leading character in the “Game of Thrones”.

Dr. James said that wolves were about 20 percent greater than their gray wolves of their age. It is not only a white and thick white, but they also have unusually dense tails and hair -like growth around their neck.

Researchers are waiting to know the size of wolves and monitor any unexpected changes in biology. “I am fascinated by seeing what is happening,” said Dr. Shapiro.

She added that the animals are unlikely to reveal the terrible behavior of wolves, given the raising of the captive.

She said, “I love to know the natural behavior of a terrible wolf.” “But they live mainly in the Ritz -Carlton lifestyle of the wolf. They cannot get a shrapnel without knowing it.”

“It is interesting to be able to make functional copies of extinct species,” said Adam Boiko, a genetic scientist at Cornell University who did not participate in the project. But Romulus, Rimos and Khalisi did not consider terrible wolves. Dr. Boiko indicated that he is not raised in the terrible wolf packages, as they can learn the behavior of the terrible wolf. They do not eat an old diet, so they do not get a unique group of their ancestors of intestinal microbes.

Animals carry 20 terrible wolf genes, which may reveal something about the biology of extinct species. But Dr. Boiko speculated that many other genes helped distinguish them from other wolves. He said: “We do not know what this number is.” “It can be 20, or it can be 2000.”

Colossal cooperates with a number of original American societies in the United States. The nation MHA in North Dakota expressed interest in the wolf project. “Its presence reminds us of our responsibility as an emanating land,” said Mark Fox, Chairman of the Upper Board of Directors at MHA, in a statement issued by the company.

But if the DNA animals are already inserted into the terrible wolf into the wild, they will have to stay in a world that is very different from the ice age. The huge animals that specialize in hunting are either extinct or engraved in small groups. Any terrible wolves must turn into free roaming into a smaller prey-and they should compete with gray wolves.

For their part, gray wolves and red wolves face threats, including hunting, which cannot take any degree of genetic magicians.

Last month, 60 environmental organizations protested a draft law that was introduced in Congress that would remove gray wolves from the list of endangered species, a change that could lead to more deaths by fishing, according to the groups warning.

“If entry into a law, the draft law will actually sign death orders for thousands of wolves throughout the country.” They wrote.

Dr. Mishent, who did not participate in the creation of the wolf, said she had mixed feelings about the vanish voltage.

She said: “All the little feelings inside me say I want to see what it looks.” “But I have questions. We have a problem with wolves that we have today.”