is the #direwolf back? 1/3 #snowwolpard #paleontology #fossil #direwolves #colossalbiosciences - ThreadSky

wolpard.bsky.social • 25 days ago

is the #direwolf back?
1/3

#snowwolpard #paleontology #fossil #direwolves #colossalbiosciences

1 / 4

Comments

imastarbtch.bsky.social•25 days ago

Love a good graphic 💚👏🏻

azunnite.bsky.social•25 days ago

This feels like it's unethical in so many ways. These gen. mod. wolves are going to have such a miserable life because humans thoughts it was okayish to "play with genetics for genetics sake". Bruh.

kingfaramund.bsky.social•23 days ago

That's what I'm saying. There's no scientific reason for creating dire wolves or bringing back any prehistoric animals other than entertainment. This company isn't even professional, transparent or credible, their privatized nature is suspicious. Too much money, unethical and unneeded experiments.

azunnite.bsky.social•23 days ago

yeahhh, they do be fishy.

kingfaramund.bsky.social•23 days ago

The only reason we should use this kind of technology is to preserve recently extinct animals and preservation. Not this sensationalist bullshit specifically created to get a news headline. It serves no purpose. These genetically modified animals are doomed to the human entertainment industry.

b33keeper.bsky.social•23 days ago

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/08/nx-s1-5355686/dire-wolf-extinct-colossal-biosciences
Hmm, jurassic wolf.

bl3iz-du.bsky.social•25 days ago

Wonderfully done and the ending was the cherry on top of the cake!

wolpard.bsky.social•25 days ago

is the dire wolf back?
2/3

wolpard.bsky.social•25 days ago

is the dire wolf back?
3/3

wherewuff.bsky.social•24 days ago

About the white coat though; is it possible that part of the reason they went extinct is because they did actually have a white coat? It would’ve made sense to have it in the ice age and they went extinct around the same time that the ice age ended

wolpard.bsky.social•24 days ago

They never were in the iciest places. I will note that the fossils they sequenced DNA from WERE from the Midwest which did see glaciers, so it's possible that this was a population that had lighter coats and there was coat variation dependant on location.

wolpard.bsky.social•24 days ago

They were incredibly widespread, and we already notice some variation in different localities (california dire wolves are smaller, for example), so coat color differences wouldn't be surprising.

wolpard.bsky.social•25 days ago

further reading:
BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g9ejy3gdvo

AP: https://apnews.com/article/dire-wolf-colossal-biosciences-de-extinction-56d6c192c5d968731b448081aa4149fe

SciAm: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-dire-wolf-isnt-back-but-heres-what-de-extinction-tech-can-actually-do/

wolpard.bsky.social•25 days ago

Clarifications:

1. No, there isn't really any other more closely related animal that could have been used. (Jackals are just as distant for example, they would be under "other wolf-like canids")

2. Color is only inferred based on their climate range and other canids. Grey/brown isn't confirmed.

wolpard.bsky.social•25 days ago

3. This genetic feat is still impressive, but that doesn't mean we now have dire wolves. They're genetically more gray wolf than anything else.

4. Colossal has not released peer reviewed research yet, so there's still a lot of unknowns.

twarda.bsky.social•25 days ago

The art style on these pages is impressive. I wonder, is it vector drawings as well?

wolpard.bsky.social•24 days ago

Nope, just doodles in photoshop with hard round brush

twarda.bsky.social•21 days ago

Very good

wolpard.bsky.social•20 days ago

Thank you!

ourocorvus.bsky.social•25 days ago

Obsessed with your particular artistic color choices for the dire wolf. That's really cool! I used to RP wolves on the internet when I was 12 and I would have been so inspired by that design if I saw it then.

brushwolf.bsky.social•25 days ago

oh how cool! I never realized their range went that far south!

incrediblemelk.bsky.social•25 days ago

When I realised what they’d done, I likened it to those experiments where researchers try to recreate excavated buildings, foods, metals, textiles etc based on what they know about the tools & techniques of the era, but they have to use modern materials which aren’t quite the same

azunnite.bsky.social•25 days ago

This whole situation sorta reminds me of Arthur Evans "reconstruction" of Knossos, in which he assumed some stuff and made up more stuff, and built Knossos how he thought it was. And the fact that it still being displayed in his. books...
And btw, the Palace of Knossos columns are upside down...

incrediblemelk.bsky.social•25 days ago

eg I remember as a kid reading a NatGeo article where palaeontologists knapped flints to make knives like the ancient ones they’d dug up, then tested them on a dead elephant (the closest they could find to a mammoth)

theatsthetic.bsky.social•20 days ago

This is great Tyler. I love this.

wolpard.bsky.social•20 days ago

thank u king

yerlakar.bsky.social•25 days ago

This is great!! Bless you for putting this together I hope it goes big!

dopupmine.bsky.social•21 days ago

I can't wait for them to publish their paper. I'm so curious to see what others have to say and what it actually consists of, like what genes associated with color they found!

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