Romulus, the first "dire wolf" to be born in some 13,000 years1, is reportedly enjoying puppyhood at Colossal, a genetics startup that used CRISPR gene-editing technology to splice the extinct species' DNA into that of modern canines.
Extinction is a part of nature. Of the five billion species that have existed on Earth, 99.9 per cent have vanished. The Late Devonian extinction, nearly four hundred million years ago, annihilated the jawless fish. The Triassic-Jurassic extinction, two hundred million years ago, finished off the crocodile-like phytosaur. Sixty-six million years ago, the end-Cretaceous extinction eliminated the Tyrannosaurus rex and the velociraptor; rapid climate change from an asteroid impact was the likely cause. The Neanderthals disappeared some forty thousand years ago. One day—whether from climate change, another asteroid, nuclear war, or something we can't yet imagine—humans will probably be wiped out, too.
Life? Sure, whatever. But it was capital that found a way.
Colossal Biosciences, the company that's famously on a mission to bring back the woolly mammoth and two other extinct species, has raised a $200 million Series C at a $10.2 billion valuation from TWG Global, the investment company of Guggenheim Partners co-founder Mark Walter and the billionaire Thomas Tull. The funding comes two years after the company closed its previous round at a reported valuation of $1.5 billion.
I'm looking forward to things not usually on the list of charismatic megafauna, such as capybaras of equestrian dimensions. Where we're going, we won't need roads.
1. Well…
Previously:
• A CRISPR-based hack could eradicate malaria-carrying mosquitoes
• CRISPR twins who had their genes edited also had their brains altered to make them smarter, scientists believe
• Scientists have successfully performed CRISPR gene editing in a live human body for the first time ever
• Scientists create mice with two fathers
