Did you know dire wolves were an actual animal species? They weren’t just things from fantasy novels and tabletop RPG’s, they were an actual breed of wolf from the Americas. Long since been extinct, they’ve still lived on in folklore and literature. “Game of Thrones” did quite a bit to bring the animal back into the public zeitgeist. Meanwhile, bioengineering company, Colossal has done quite a bit to actually bring the animal back to life; literally.
In something that seems straight out of a Michael Crichton novel as opposed to a George R.R. Martin tale, Colossal’s bioengineers took DNA from two dire wolf fossils to reconstruct its genetic sequence. They used a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull and compared the DNA to that of a gray wolf. After the comparisons were made, they edited the gray wolf code to more closely resemble that of the dire wolf. Then, using a surrogate mother, three wolf pups were born.
The white furred wolves were given highly fitting names. The two males were named Romulus and Remus with the female being named Khaleesi.
Tying things even further into “Game of Thrones,” GRRM is an investor in Colossal. He was even photographed on an official Iron Throne prop that happens to be owned by Sir Peter Jackson. Yes, the director Peter Jackson, who also happens to be an investor in Colossal. Who knew that the revival of dire wolves would be such a star-studded affair? Colossal is currently keeping the wolves on their private preserve but would like to eventually introduce them back into segments of the country.
Speaking of, you can read GRRM’s post about this here.
