I quite literally cannot believe, for multiple reasons, what I am about to say is true. Yet, somehow, it is: we got real dire wolves before we got The Winds of Winter. Scientists have produced three pups best known as House Stark’s sigil. They are the first de-extincted animal in history.
Colossal Biosciences has announced (in news we first heard at The Hollywood Reporter) a major scientific breakthrough. The company says it has given birth to “the world’s first successfully de-extincted animal” by bringing back dire wolves. The three animals are the first of its kind since the creature went extinct 12,500 years ago.
“I could not be more proud of the team,” said Colossal CEO Ben Lamm in a press release. “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.”
Magic is a fitting word since most people know dire wolves from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. In his realm of magic and dragons, those American canids still exist. (Though by the end of Game of Thrones only Jon Snow’s albino Ghost remained from the litter the Starks found. That means the real world a current 3-1 advantage in official dire wolves.) Colossal Biosciences paid homage to Martin’s story by naming its female dire wolf Khaleesi. It named its two male pups after the mythical founders of Rome, the twins Romulus and Remus who legend says a she-wolf raised.
The company says all three dire wolves “are thriving on a 2,000+ acre secure expansive ecological preserve that is certified by the American Humane Society and registered with USDA.”
We’re sure they are. We’re also sure they’re thriving in ways A Song of Ice Fire fans, even if we’re awed by this news, can’t. Those animals are a living scientific miracle. Even better, they get to live their lives not realizing scientists somehow managed to de-exctint dire wolves before George R.R. Martin finished a single novel.
Content shared from nerdist.com.