Colossal says it's brought the dire wolf back from extinction — but the accuracy of that claim and the ethics of de-extinction are in question. This episode was produced by Devan Schwartz, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Andrea Kristinsdottir and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Further reading: The Dire Wolf Is Back. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast. Colossal’s Dire Wolves, Romulus and Remus, at one month old. Photo credit Business Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Direwolves, not just a thing from Game of Thrones, not just Jon Snow's best friend. Direwolves walked the Americas for millennia, up until about 14,000 years ago when maybe their primary food source dried up or humans hunted them to extinction, no one was taking notes. But we know they were a bit bigger than gray wolves, they ate a lot of meat, and their bite could crush bones.
And now we know that apparently direwolves are back A startup called Colossal says they've brought these pups back from extinction. They say they've got three of them, but are these direwolves they brought back actually direwolves? And whether they are or aren't, should we be trying to bring direwolves back? Like, why? We are going to ask on Today Explained.
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Not a lot of people have seen these direwolves that have come back from extinction up close and personal. Like DT Maxx from The New Yorker is one of the few who has.
Okay, so first of all, we just got to get this out there. We either have to put direwolves in quotes or we have to give them a name. Like, I don't know, we could do anything like... How about Diet Direwolves? Yes, exactly. These so-called direwolves were created by extracting DNA from a 72,000-year-old direwolf inner ear bone and a 13,000-year-old direwolf tooth.
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