If I know my sci-fi, first we bring back the wolves, then we bring back the dinosaurs!
Yes, that's right, a company that used DNA from dire wolf remains to bring the extinct species back to life is making the media rounds today and everyone is talking about it. This is supposedly the first time these wolves have been seen or heard in 10,000 years, which is weird, because the Earth is only 6,000 years old or so. đ
Check out TIME's cover:
The media tour also included Joe Rogan's podcast.
Now that we've established that this is all part of a PR campaign likely meant to raise some additional rounds of funding, here are the wolves:
The pups Remus and Romulus were born back on October 1 and are about half of their estimated weight, which is a whopping 150 pounds.
The team used cells from the lining of blood vessels in grey wolves, then "rewrote" 14 genes in the cell's nucleus to match a dire wolf. It then created dozens of embryos in a lab and managed to get two to implant in the uterus of two large hound dogs. A "sister" named Khaleesi was born two months ago.
Colossal Biosciences has released a flurry of videos as part of its PR campaign today, but if you want to see where they are housing the wolves, check this one out ... or skip ahead for the memes.
Lots of people are arguing (on the internet?) about whether this is just an elaborate marketing stunt - are these actual dire wolves or just modified grey wolves that have traits that fit our guess as to what dire wolves looked like?
I dunno, but the jokes are funny!
Multiple teams of scientists are racing to bring back numerous animals from extinction, including the Tasmanian tiger and wooly mammoth.
Can't wait for them to put together a whole zoo full of animals they've brought back from extinction! Maybe on a remote island somewhere?
P.S. Now check out our latest video đ
