by From Will Dunham
Washington (Reuters) – The Dire Wolf was one of the most impressive predators in America during the last ice age and has a shorter body and a skull more robust than that of modern wolves. The species died together with many others than the ice age ended.
About 13,000 years later, a US company took a step to bring the Dire Wolf of Oblivion back -apart from the TV versions in the popular fantasy series “Game of Thrones”. The colossal biosciences based in Dallas has announced the birth of three genetically modified wolf puppies – all with striking white fur – with the help of an old DNA of fossil remains of bad wolves.
The company calls it Dire Wolves and refers to this as the first successful “relieved” animal in the world. The same approach can be used to revive other extinct species for which old DNA is available, according to the company.
Experts from external experts are more careful and describe the puppies as genetically modified gray wolves, since the process with which they were created the genes of these species add bad wolf characteristics. The gray wolf is the closest life of the bad wolf.
There are two male puppies called Romulus and Remus to Rome’s legendary founders, who were sucked by a sheolf and a woman named Khaleesi in honor of a “Game of Thrones” chaktor.
According to Beth Shapiro, Chief Science Officer from Colossal, all three are large for their age compared to gray wolves. Romulus and Remus, both six months old, are around 80 pounds (36 kg), while Khaleesi is around £ 25 (11 kg) at two months.
Direct wolves were up to 25% larger than gray wolves with a somewhat wider head and a stronger jaw, said the company.
Company scientists extracted old DNA from two bad wolf fossils – a tooth from Sheridan Pit, Ohio, about 13,000 years old, and an inner ear from American Falls, Idaho, about 72,000 years old.
Twenty genes of gray wolves were processed with this DNA to contain bad wolf characteristics in gray wolf cells. By cloning, embryos were generated from the edited gray wolf cells, which were implanted in surrogate dog mothers. The puppies gave birth to three different dogs.
“We define the success of the de-extinction as the re dilution of the functional ecological features that made the bad wolves unique participants in their ecosystem, and our terrible wolves are an example of this,” said Shapiro.
When asked whether it is right to call the puppies of Dire Wolves, Shapiro said: “I have the feeling that this debate missed the point a little. Remember that species classification are human constructs that are often not good at natural populations. We invented them to understand the natural world.”
“DE outdock does not create perfect genetic copies of individual animals. It is about restoring lost ecological functions and improving the biological diversity,” added Shapiro.
“Light modifications”
Corey Bradshaw, Professor of Global Ecology at Flinders University in Australia, expressed skepticism compared to the announcement of the company and the practicality of reviving an extinct species.
“So yes, you may have slightly genetically modified wolves. And that’s probably the best you will get. And these light modifications seem to have been derived from called wolf material. Does it make it a bad wolf?
Shapiro said that the puppies are flourishing on a safe ecological preservation of more than 2,000 hectares (810 hectares). The company did not give the location. Shapiro said you could finally weigh 100 to 150 pounds (45-68 kg) and stand on the shoulder 32 to 40 inches (81-102 cm).
Dire Wolves once grazed in North and South America as one of the most successful predators of the ice age as well as in saberzahn cats and huge short-faced. In North America, their fossils were discovered to Alaska and South Mexico. Numerous wolf fossils were found in Rancho La Brea at the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.
Earlier studies could not solve their evolutionary origin, which led to speculation that jackals may be their closest living relatives. Colossal said his high-quality direct wolf genome has shown that the gray wolf is the closest living relative and shares 99.5% of its DNA code with bad wolves.
The scientists also found that the bad wolf line appeared 3.5 and 2.5 million years ago as a result of the hybridization between two old lines of canids.
“Some extinct species, such as the Dire Wolf, have a deep cultural importance for indigenous peoples or played an important role in the history of mankind. Their restoration could help to preserve the cultural heritage and traditional ecological knowledge,” said Shapiro.
(Reporting according to Will Dunham; additional reporting from Joseph Campbell; editorial team of Rosalba O’Brien)
