Colossal didn’t bring back dire wolves
Let’s be generous and say that 20 of the 20,000 genes have been made dire wolfish, and they didn’t miss any important enhancer elements. They still have 99.9% of the genes to convert! Let’s be generous–maybe only a subset of the genes are different, they should have a crude estimate from sequence analysis. So maybe they only need to change 1000 genes to capture the main dire wolf traits, so 2% done!
Though closely related, studies on their genes have found dire wolves split from other canids around 5.7 million years ago, with no sign of an exchange of genes with North America’s gray wolf ancestral populations.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/04/de-extinction-company-announces-that-the-dire-wolf-is-back/
To create these pups, scientists at Colossal used past genetic sequencing studies to make just 20 unique precision edits among the 2.5 billion base pairs in gray wolf germline cells. They then used surrogate dog mothers to give birth to the genetically engineered gray wolf pups.
Colossal hasn’t claimed an intention to make a genetically precise dire wolf. But even if they are trying to create a wolf that looks and behaves like they think a dire wolf would, Austin says that would still probably require tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of critical genetic changes.
Five of the 20 gene edits made to the gray wolves were apparently associated with light coat color alone, according to New Scientist’s interview with Shapiro.