Studying the dire wolf’s genome also allowed the Colossal team to figure out which features distinguished the ancient wolf from its modern relatives. They settled on traits involving size, musculature, hair color, hair texture, hair length, and coat patterning. They then used gene editing to alter the genome of cells from the dire wolf’s closest living relative, the gray wolf. In total the company made 20 unique edits to 14 genes in the gray wolf genome. Of those, 15 were meant to reproduce extinct dire wolf gene variants. Colossal claims it’s a record number of unique genetic edits done to any animal.
But the dire wolf’s genome is still almost identical to that of the gray wolf. This raises a tricky question: Are these wolves really dire wolves or just gene-edited gray wolves? Lamm, of course, says the animals are dire wolves. “We call them dire wolves,” he says….
