Game of Thrones' dire wolves brought back from extinction after 10,000 years (2025)

A biotech company has hailed its breakthrough of resurrecting the species

A biotech company has announced that the dire wolf, an extinct species immortalised by the hit TV show Game of Thrones, has been resurrected after over 10,000 years.

Colossal Biosciences, a Texas-based firm, revealed on Monday that its team had successfully used cloning and gene-editing techniques with two ancient DNA samples of dire wolves to create three living pups – two six-month-old males named Romulus and Remus, and a three-month-old female named Khaleesi.

Ben Lamm, CEO of Colossal, hailed the breakthrough as a "massive milestone".

He said in a statement: "I could not be more proud of the team. This massive milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works.

"Our team took DNA from a 13,000 year old tooth and a 72,000 year old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies.

"It was once said, 'any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic'. Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they are working on and its broader impact on conservation."

The researchers at Colossal detailed the intricate de-extinction process, which involved extracting blood cells from a modern grey wolf – the closest living relative of the dire wolf – and modifying them at 20 different genetic sites.

This modified genetic material was then inserted into an egg cell from a domestic dog, creating embryos that were subsequently implanted into surrogate mothers, culminating in the successful birth of the pups.

Dr Beth Shapiro, Colossal's chief science officer, said: "Our novel approach to iteratively improve our ancient genome in the absence of a perfect reference sets a new standard for paleogenome reconstruction.

"Together with improved approaches to recover ancient DNA, these computational advances allowed us to resolve the evolutionary history of dire wolves and establish the genomic foundation for de-extinction – specifically for selecting with confidence dire wolf specific genetic variants that establish our targets for gene editing."

The dire wolf's distinctive traits include light, thick fur and muscular jaws. It is also much larger than grey wolves.

Colossal said the animals will live in a continuously monitored, secure ecological preserve certified by the American Humane Society and registered with the US Department of Agriculture.

The dire wolf is a mainstay of fantasy settings in pop culture, with mentions in role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and video games like World of Warcraft.

However, the vehicle that truly brought dire wolves to fame is the HBO series Game of Thrones, based on the works of author George RR Martin.

Mr Martin, an investor in Colossal and cultural adviser for the company, said: "Many people view dire wolves as mythical creatures that only exist in a fantasy world, but in reality, they have a rich history of contributing to the American ecosystem."

"I get the luxury to write about magic, but Ben and Colossal have created magic by bringing these majestic beasts back to our world."

Colossal also announced it had cloned four red wolves using blood drawn from wild wolves of the south-eastern US's critically endangered red wolf population.

The aim is to bring more genetic diversity into the small population of captive red wolves, which scientists are using to breed and help save the species.

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