Return of the dire wolf

[NorthCyd]

This thread needs a poll:

Which one of our creations kill us first?

AI​

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Genetically re-created species​

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Other​

This reminds me of a Lewis Black rant on the Daily Show back when he would do the Back In Black segment. There was a story about scientists who had neurally linked a robot arm to a monkey and the monkey could control the arm to feed itself. Black looks in the camera and screams "We can defeat the monkeys, and we can defeat the robots, but not at the same damn time!"

I wish I could find the clip but it was back when I was in college so over 20 years ago. I doubt it's easily available. Side note, Black visited CY Stephens for a free student show when I was in college and it was hilarious.

 

[Bret44]

Back on topic, after some more reading, it looks more like a geoengineered Gray Wolf than an actual Dire wolf. Still kind of neat, and hopefully, it can lead to bringing back animals that humans caused to go extinct, like the Thylacine or the Great Auk. They both could fill some much-needed niches in their places of origin.

 

[Bigman38]

This reminds me of a Lewis Black rant on the Daily Show back when he would do the Back In Black segment. There was a story about scientists who had neurally linked a robot arm to a monkey and the monkey could control the arm to feed itself. Black looks in the camera and screams "We can defeat the monkeys, and we can defeat the robots, but not at the same damn time!"

I wish I could find the clip but it was back when I was in college so over 20 years ago. I doubt it's easily available. Side note, Black visited CY Stephens for a free student show when I was in college and it was hilarious.

His rants on the Daily Show were always great

 

[NorthCyd]

Back on topic, after some more reading, it looks more like a geoengineered Gray Wolf than an actual Dire wolf. Still kind of neat, and hopefully, it can lead to bringing back animals that humans caused to go extinct, like the Thylacine or the Great Auk. They both could fill some much-needed niches in their places of origin.

This kind of gets into more of a philosophical argument. Like I mentioned earlier, it will be interesting to see when one of the wolves passes how closely things like skeletal structure are to the remains of actual Dire Wolves. I mean, if you do a good enough job and can alter the DNA of its closest living relative enough to where you exactly match that of a Dire Wolf then what is the difference? If it looks like a Dire Wolf and quacks like a Dire Wolf so to speak.

 

[ISUTex]

snowcraig, you can dumb my post all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that people shoot coyotes for sport. I don't. But a lot of people do. And they are still multiplying. If there was an apocalypse, coyotes would still be around. Just like rats and cockroaches. Sorry if that offended you.

 

[Die4Cy]

If you can sequence the genome of any extinct animal, and produce a gene edited species that when it reproduce naturally has the same genome, they're the same species. Not technically, but actually.

 

[simply1]

They don’t seem exceptionally big to me though.

At their young age they already measure nearly 4 ft. long, tip the scales at 80 lb., and could grow to 6 ft. and 150 lb.

Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

ESA status: endangered (February 2022) except Northern Rocky Mtn of ID, MT, WY; eastern 1/3 of OR, WA; north-central UT; threatened (Dec 2014) in MN. The gray wolf, being a keystone predator, is an integral component of the ecosystems to which it typically belongs. The wide range of habitats in...

www.fws.gov

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) are the largest wild members of Canidae, or dog family, with adults ranging in weight from 18 to 80 kilograms (40 to 175 pounds), depending on sex and geographic locale.

 

[12191987]

They tried like hell to kill all the Coyotes.

The difference between Coyotes and wolves is how they react to killings.

In 1899, Montana paid out on 23,000 plus wolves, and by 1927, only 17.

Yotes, on the other hand, averaged 30,000 paid bounties per year from 1883 to 1920.

From 1883 to 1927, Montana paid out 111,500 bounties on wolves and over 886,000 bounties on coyotes. Yotes adapted because that is what they have always done.

In fact, trying to kill them all out has led to their explosion in population and expansion to 49 states and much of Canada and Central America. All while still killing more than 400,000/year.

During pupping season I can’t let my dog outside alone. I’ve seen coyotes in broad daylight blocks from my house. I live in a very dense city (there are probably 450-600 people living on my block).

 

[Bret44]

During pupping season I can’t let my dog outside alone. I’ve seen coyotes in broad daylight blocks from my house. I live in a very dense city (there are probably 450-600 people living on my block).

I am pretty sure that the myth that coyote packs lure dogs to attack and kill during pupping season has been disproven. They will attack smaller dogs and cats if unattended, but mainly due to the fact that coyotes think they are competition.

 

[12191987]

I am pretty sure that the myth that coyote packs lure dogs to attack and kill during pupping season has been disproven. They will attack smaller dogs and cats if unattended, but mainly due to the fact that coyotes think they are competition.

Maybe? I’ve not heard about luring, just told they’re more active and venture out more widely for hunting. Anecdotally that matches my experience, I’ve only actually seen them during the spring/summer.

They’ve killed and (partially) eaten a lot of cats locally. A few dogs too, but that’s been mostly in a neighboring city (where they’ve decapitated baby seals!).

 

[Bret44]

 

[carvers4math]

Is winter coming? My poppies and daffodils are blooming.

 

[cyfan92]

 

[Freebird]

The interviewed scientist said the DNA was 99% Grey Wolf and the remaining 1% was modified to match the Dire Wolf. She, said the result IS 100% Dire Wolf. BUT, she paused before saying that. Take that for what it's worth. I'm not eliminating biological extinction, but I think a more plausible explanation was weather related with limited migratory relief due to man's dominance of that region.

So. This is total ********. Even 1% would be millions of genes. They altered twenty.

No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction

Colossal Biosciences claims three pups born recently are dire wolves, but they are actually grey wolves with genetic edits intended to make them resemble the lost species

www.newscientist.com

 

[cyfanbr]

So. This is total ********. Even 1% would be millions of genes. They altered twenty.

No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction

Colossal Biosciences claims three pups born recently are dire wolves, but they are actually grey wolves with genetic edits intended to make them resemble the lost species

www.newscientist.com

I haven’t taken a deep dive into the topic, but my understanding is that they sequenced the dire wolf DNA, and then used the grey wolf DNA as a starting point and modified it to match the sequenced DNA. I’m sure both DNAs are almost identical and the 20 changes are what distinct the grey wolf from a dire wolf. Is this not correct?

Or are people arguing semantics?

 

[Freebird]

I haven’t taken a deep dive into the topic, but my understanding is that they sequenced the dire wolf DNA, and then used the grey wolf DNA as a starting point and modified it to match the sequenced DNA. I’m sure both DNAs are almost identical and the 20 changes are what distinct the grey wolf from a dire wolf. Is this not correct?

Or are people arguing semantics?

The article spells it out well. Grey wolves aren’t even their closest living relative. Twenty is nothing. Not saying it isn’t possible to basically clone them but they aren’t particularly close at this point and calling grey wolves you turned white and gave slightly pointier ears to isn’t exactly the return of an extinct species

 

[cyfanbr]

The article spells it out well. Grey wolves aren’t even their closest living relative. Twenty is nothing. Not saying it isn’t possible to basically clone them but they aren’t particularly close at this point and calling grey wolves you turned white and gave slightly pointier ears to isn’t exactly the return of an extinct species

I read the article earlier and just peaked at it again to make I was remembering it right. To me, it still sounds like the new DNA is identical to the actual dire wolf DNA. Excerpts below.

Relying on deft genetic engineering and ancient, preserved DNA, Colossal scientists deciphered the dire wolf genome, rewrote the genetic code of the common gray wolf to match it, and, using domestic dogs as surrogate mothers, brought Romulus, Remus, and their sister, 2-month-old Khaleesi, into the world

Creating the dire wolves called for making just 20 edits in 14 genes in the common gray wolf

The dire wolf genome analyzed to determine what those changes were was extracted from two ancient samples—one a 13,000-year-old tooth found in Sheridan Pit, Ohio, the other a 72,000-year-old ear bone unearthed in American Falls, Idaho.

 

[CYCLNST8]

I'm sure Michael Vick is following this story very closely.

 

[Bret44]

I finally found a thread to share my love of Canidae, Coyote behavior, and evolutionary biology. Thanks folks.

 

[Freebird]

I read the article earlier and just peaked at it again to make I was remembering it right. To me, it still sounds like the new DNA is identical to the actual dire wolf DNA. Excerpts below.

Relying on deft genetic engineering and ancient, preserved DNA, Colossal scientists deciphered the dire wolf genome, rewrote the genetic code of the common gray wolf to match it, and, using domestic dogs as surrogate mothers, brought Romulus, Remus, and their sister, 2-month-old Khaleesi, into the world

Creating the dire wolves called for making just 20 edits in 14 genes in the common gray wolf

The dire wolf genome analyzed to determine what those changes were was extracted from two ancient samples—one a 13,000-year-old tooth found in Sheridan Pit, Ohio, the other a 72,000-year-old ear bone unearthed in American Falls, Idaho.

That’s the company’s claim. Kinda. But to say this is a dire wolf recreation is incredibly inaccurate. Primates share even more DNA but to say you created a human from an orangutan because you changed a dozen genes or so to make them hairless would be false. These are not dire wolves simply because a few traits were changed.
Still very interesting science but no.