Scientists announce the dire wolf has been brought back from extinction

The animal is well known from Game of Thrones.

On Monday, Texas based start up Colossal Biosciences revealed that its researchers had successfully facilitated the birth of three modern dire wolf pups.

The pups are two six-month-old males named Romulus and Remus, and a three-month-old female named Khaleesi.

TV series Game of Thrones made the extinct species resurge in popularity.

Colossal Biosciences used cloning and gene-editing techniques to bring the extinct species back.

They based this on two ancient DNA samples of the dire wolf DNA.

Chief executive of the company, Ben Lamm, labelled the development a 'massive milestone'.

He added: “I could not be more proud of the team. This massive milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works.

“Our team took DNA from a 13,000 year old tooth and a 72,000 year old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies.

“It was once said, ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’. Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they are working on and its broader impact on conservation.”

Researchers at the company explained that de-extinction involved taking blood cells from a grey wolf, the closest living relative of the dire wolf, and genetically modifying them.

This genetic material was then transferred to an egg cell, the embryos were transferred to surrogates for gestation and, finally, birth.

“Our novel approach to iteratively improve our ancient genome in the absence of a perfect reference sets a new standard for paleogenome reconstruction," explained Dr Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief science officer.

“Together with improved approaches to recover ancient DNA, these computational advances allowed us to resolve the evolutionary history of dire wolves and establish the genomic foundation for de-extinction – specifically for selecting with confidence dire wolf specific genetic variants that establish our targets for gene editing," she continued.

The dire wolf is hugely common in fantasy pop culture, playing a role in games like Dungeons & Dragons and World of Warcraft.

Most popular thought is its feature in the HBO series Game of Thrones, based on the books from author George RR Martin.

Mr Martin, who is an investor in the company as well as its cultural adviser, commented: “Many people view dire wolves as mythical creatures that only exist in a fantasy world, but in reality, they have a rich history of contributing to the American ecosystem.”

The author added: “I get the luxury to write about magic, but Ben and Colossal have created magic by bringing these majestic beasts back to our world.”