- Feb 5, 2002
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A Texas-based bioengineering company sparked headlines across the world earlier this month when it announced it had done the seemingly impossible: brought a long-extinct species, the dire wolf, back from the dead.
Here’s what Catholics should know about the dire wolves and what the Church might have to say about “resurrecting” extinct species of animals.
The company was cofounded by the famed Harvard geneticist George Church, who has been active in the field of species “de-extinction” for decades. (Its investors include George R. R. Martin, author of the “Game of Thrones” fantasy series; dire wolves feature prominently in those stories.)
To create the puppies, scientists extracted and sequenced ancient DNA from two dire wolf fossils, compared the ancient genomes to those of several living relatives including present-day wolves, and identified gene variants specific to dire wolves. They then edited a donor genome from a gray wolf and cloned those cells into gray wolf eggs before finally transferring the embryo into a surrogate wolf.
Continued below.
www.catholicnewsagency.com
Here’s what Catholics should know about the dire wolves and what the Church might have to say about “resurrecting” extinct species of animals.
A Colossal claim
Colossal Biosciences, a private company based in Dallas, announced April 7 the births of three genetically-modified puppies they say are not merely wolves but dire wolves — a species that roamed the Americas as a top predator for tens of thousands of years but which went extinct naturally around 12,500 years ago.The company was cofounded by the famed Harvard geneticist George Church, who has been active in the field of species “de-extinction” for decades. (Its investors include George R. R. Martin, author of the “Game of Thrones” fantasy series; dire wolves feature prominently in those stories.)
To create the puppies, scientists extracted and sequenced ancient DNA from two dire wolf fossils, compared the ancient genomes to those of several living relatives including present-day wolves, and identified gene variants specific to dire wolves. They then edited a donor genome from a gray wolf and cloned those cells into gray wolf eggs before finally transferring the embryo into a surrogate wolf.
Continued below.
CNA explains: Dire wolf ‘resurrection’? What Catholics should know
Here’s what Catholics should know about the dire wolves and what the Church might have to say about “resurrecting” extinct species of animals.
www.catholicnewsagency.com
