Last week, biotech start-up Colossal Biosciences announced they had genetically engineered three dire wolf hybrid pups, making “de-extinct” an animal that last walked the earth 10,000 years ago. Our poll on this, and the four other species Colossal has interest in restoring, indicates public opinion firmly against their efforts.
Comments to our survey were mostly of the “we all saw Jurassic Park” variety, in essence wanting to leave well enough alone. We don’t quibble with the opinion, but we were surprised that no one suggested there might already be (other) cases where well enough was not left alone given the world knew nothing of the dire wolf pups until six months after the fact.
Dire wolf hybrids Romulus and Remus at 6 months, 2025. Image courtesy Colossal Biosciences
A real-life Jurassic Park is beyond the reach of current technology because 60m-year-old dinosaur DNA is too damaged to be of use, but there are plenty of other high risk/high reward targets among the more recently extinct.
Giant woolly mammoths disappeared 10,000 years ago, but if revived may limit greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The resuscitation of apex predator thylacines, gone since 1936, may restore a healthier, more diverse ecosystem to Tasmania. Mammoths and thylacines are among the five species on Colossal’s to-do list.
Full woolly mammoth restoration Wiesbaden Museum, Germany, 2018. Image Getty // Andreas Arnold
Also in Colossal's thoughts, if not yet on their list, are Neanderthals, who went extinct 40,000 years ago. Our panelists thought reviving this species was the worst idea of all, with only 5% support v 25% for dire wolves, thylacines, and mammoths.
We can understand this point of view, because unlike the mammoth or thylacine there is no obvious upside to the environment from reintroducing a second species of the Homo genus, but that doesn’t mean someone with money hasn’t found someone with gene editing skills to try it.
Perhaps more likely is attempted reboots of dead humans. In 1980 a wealthy Californian named Robert Graham sought to create a sperm bank donated entirely by Nobel prize winners. While Graham failed to attract such donors, he did pioneer selecting donors whose traits would be desirable to prospective parents (brains, looks, height, to be specific) a practice that eventually became standard across the sperm bank industry.
No credible source has ever announced the cloning of a human, but it is technically possible. Does anyone doubt there are couples in California who would like a Steve Jobs clone as their child, or Bostonians who’d like a Ted Williams (for whom eight DNA samples are missing from cryogenic storage), or Austrians who want a Mozart? Does anyone doubt there are scientists willing to try to make that happen, and the possibility they already have?
Minor league baseball player Kyle Tucker as Ted Williams in 2018 documentary "The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived." Getty // Diamond Images
