What is a 'de-extinction' company doing with dire wolves?

The answer

In late 2024 and early 2025, biotech company Colossal Biosciences announced it had created the first modern dire wolves - two males named Romulus and Remus born in October 2024, and a female named Khaleesi born in January 2025. The company sequenced the dire wolf genome from ancient remains and used gene editing to modify key genes of a close living relative. Dire wolves went extinct roughly 13,000 years ago. While critics debate whether these are true dire wolves or modified modern canids, the project represents a major milestone in de-extinction science and ancient DNA technology.