It's been 5,018 days since the last (but not final) installment of George R.R. Martin's 'Game of Thrones' was published. While fans have been waiting for the conclusion that will likely never come, scientists have managed to resurrect the dire wolf ten millennia after it went extinct:
TIME's new cover: The dire wolf is back after over 10,000 years. Here's what that means for other extinct species https://t.co/LQtosdfiEf pic.twitter.com/bv8EbeefuW
— TIME (@TIME) April 7, 2025
Romulus and Remus are doing what puppies do: chasing, tussling, nipping, nuzzling. But there’s something very un-puppylike about the snowy white 6-month olds—their size, for starters. 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. Then there’s their behavior: the angelic exuberance puppies exhibit in the presence of humans—trotting up for hugs, belly rubs, kisses—is completely absent. They keep their distance, retreating if a person approaches. Even one of the handlers who raised them from birth can get only so close before Romulus and Remus flinch and retreat. This isn’t domestic canine behavior, this is wild lupine behavior: the pups are wolves. Not only that, they’re dire wolves—which means they have cause to be lonely.
The dire wolf once roamed an American range that extended as far south as Venezuela and as far north as Canada, but not a single one has been seen in over 10,000 years, when the species went extinct. Plenty of dire wolf remains have been discovered across the Americas, however, and that presented an opportunity for a company named Colossal Biosciences.
This writer is of two minds: on one hand, cute quasi-doggos!
On the other: have these people not seen 'Jurassic Park'?!
I'm sure this will work out about as well as Jurassic Park worked right?
— Shawn Farash (@Shawn_Farash) April 7, 2025
Stop trying to play God.
Where's Ian Malcolm when you need him?
— Cincy Browncoat - You can't take the sky from me (@cincy_browncoat) April 7, 2025
There he is.
On the list of "stupid scientist ideas" this is up there with "let's block the sun to prevent global warming" and "let's fund making a respiratory virus more deadly".
— Your Disapproving Dad (@disapprover69) April 7, 2025
But the dire wolf is so FLOOFY!
So if we DO get into de-extinction efforts, where's the line that we draw? I feel like the Wooly Mammoth is about as close to dinos as we should get. MAYBE make ONE small dino JUST to see. But like kill it right after.
— Mercy the Buzzard⭕ (@MercyBuzzard13) April 7, 2025
Where is the line?
And this writer's seen 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' and she hates the scene where the brontosaurus dies on the island, so let's not bring back a dinosaur just to off it, okay?
Can scientists recreate the moderate Democrat?
— WonderMutt (@WonderMutt20) April 7, 2025
They're scientists, no miracle workers.
Democrats when they find out Trump resurrected dire wolves https://t.co/GKSAqvAELF pic.twitter.com/7baxFieVGN
— Fred (@Grand_handsomer) April 7, 2025
Heh.
We literally got Direwolves back sooner than we got the next Game of Thrones book. https://t.co/hUTi9islOo
— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D. (@neoavatara) April 7, 2025
As this writer said.
Bro we literally got actual dire wolves before we got Winds of Winter https://t.co/LtPo2gksaJ
— Trey the Explainer (@Trey_Explainer) April 7, 2025
And we're clearly not alone in thinking this.
But wait -- what if this is all a lead into Martin dropping the next installment?
(It's not, but a girl can dream)
This feels like a magazine cover you see at a checkout counter while the newly introduced female lead buys nail polish remover and Neutrogena, which three days later she’ll have to use to fight nuclear-waste fueled feral dire wolves. https://t.co/Bh8p5c9I8Q
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) April 7, 2025
'Feral Dire Wolves' would make a great band name, though.
Correction: It’s been 5,018 days since ‘A Dance With Dragons’ was published and we have corrected the error.
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