A Dallas Lab Already Brought Back the Dire Wolf. The Woolly Mammoth Is Next.

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Today's story is the one that sounds most like science fiction but is actually science fact. There is a company in Dallas that has already resurrected the dire wolf, a species that went extinct over 12,500 years ago. They have engineered mice with woolly mammoth coats. And they say a real, living woolly mammoth will walk the Earth in roughly two years. This is not a Netflix pitch. This is a venture-backed startup, with hundreds of millions of dollars, doing it right now. Today we walk through what they have actually accomplished, what is genuinely coming, and why this matters far beyond the novelty.

The company is Colossal Biosciences, founded in 2021 by Dallas billionaire Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church. It is described as "the world's first de-extinction and species preservation company," and what makes it serious is the specifics, not the marketing. Mean CEO's BLOG

In April 2025, the company announced it had revived the dire wolf. The wolves had been extinct for over 12,500 years. The way they did it is the actual story. Scientists referenced DNA from a tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull to modify the genome of gray wolves to match the genetic profile of the extinct dire wolf. The hybrid cells are then grown into an embryo that is implanted into a surrogate. What lives now in their facility is not a perfect dire wolf, and Colossal does not claim it is. The company doesn't claim a resurrected species is going to be exactly like it was before. It is a functional recreation built from the closest living relative's genome edited toward the ancient one. Close enough, in scientific terms, to count. TechRadar + 2

In September 2025, the lab announced a scientific breakthrough in resurrecting the dodo bird. The company's scientists were the first to create primordial germ cells from birds other than chickens and geese. Translation: they cracked a fundamental technical problem in avian de-extinction that nobody had solved before. The dodo is now actually in the pipeline. TechRadar

NPR's full inside look at the Dallas lab: https://www.npr.org/2026/03/04/nx-s1-5704318/colossal-woolly-mammoth-dire-wolf

Axios on how the de-extinction technology actually works: https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2026/02/18/how-colossal-de-extinction-technology-works-dallas

Here is the part that genuinely surprised me. Colossal's scientists are using genetic guideposts to try to create cloned, gene-edited mammoth embryos from the skin cells of Asian elephants, which are the extinct mammoth's closest living relative. The embryos would be transferred into surrogate female Asian elephants in the hopes they'll give birth to mammoths 22 months later. The company says it's getting close and predicts the birth of the first mammoth in about two years. The Tribune

Two years. From a Dallas lab. Then a 22-month elephant pregnancy. The math works out to roughly 2028 for the first mammoth, possibly 2029 if there are technical setbacks. "The mammoth conjures probably the most excitement," Lamm says. "It's like people almost put it in the Jurassic Park age. It wasn't. We were making pyramids while mammoths were still here." That last sentence is worth pausing on. The last mammoths walked the Earth around 4,000 years ago. The Egyptians had already been building pyramids for six centuries at that point. Mammoths are not deep prehistoric. They are recent. The Register

To validate that the genetic edits would actually produce the woolly coat, the lab engineered "woolly mice" with long dirty-blond hair that mimics the shaggy fur that helped protect mammoths from the Arctic cold. "This was a great step for us to validate that the genes that we were targeting in the woolly mammoth genome are responsible for this specific woolly coat trait." The mice are running around the lab right now, fluffy proof that the edits work in mammalian DNA. The Tribune

Den of Geek's exclusive interview with Colossal leadership: https://www.denofgeek.com/culture/colossal-woolly-mammoth-on-track-2028-de-extinction-evolves/

The most interesting twist in this story is that the cool factor of resurrecting extinct species is not actually the point. It is the funding mechanism for the real point. Lamm believes investing in the de-extinction technology and research will have a more profound impact on worldwide conservation efforts than the current government models to protect endangered animals. TechRadar

The way Colossal's chief science officer Beth Shapiro frames it is striking. "The idea of de-extinction is exciting. It brings new people in, brings new money into conservation. The money that's gone to support Colossal would have otherwise gone to something like Bitcoin. Who knows? This is not money that would've supported traditional approaches to conservation." Translation: the spectacle of a dire wolf brings in investor dollars that would never have gone to "save the elephants" charity campaigns, and those dollars are now funding genetic tools that directly help current endangered species survive. The Register

This actually appears to be working. About 30% of Colossal's investors come from kids telling their parents about the company after hearing about de-extinction in science class or on TikTok. The same gene-editing techniques being used to recreate mammoths from Asian elephant DNA are being applied in real time to help current Asian elephant populations survive in changing climates. The dire wolf research has produced insights that help wolf conservation programs in Yellowstone. "We are in the sixth mass extinction, which is being accelerated by man," Lamm has said, and the urgency is real. "We're going to lose up to 50 percent of all biodiversity between now and 2050." TechRadar + 2

Euronews on the broader conservation angle: https://www.euronews.com/2026/02/13/bringing-back-extinct-species-is-the-most-exciting-thing-in-2026-says-colossal-founder-at-

The newest piece of the strategy is something out of a near-future thriller. Colossal announced it is creating a biovault and preservation lab to store frozen tissue and biological samples of 10,000 species inside Dubai's Museum of the Future. Colossal will focus first on collecting samples from the 100 most endangered species worldwide. TechRadar

Think about what this actually is. A vault, in the desert, containing the genetic blueprints of ten thousand living species, preserved against future extinction. If any of those species disappears in the next century, the genetic material is sitting safely in cold storage, ready to be revived using the same technology that brought back the dire wolf. It is a literal backup of biodiversity, and it is being built right now.

Beyond the mammoth and dodo, other projects in various stages of development include the thylacine (the Tasmanian tiger), the dodo, and the great moa of New Zealand. The thylacine in particular went extinct in 1936, which is recent enough that there are people alive today who remember seeing the last one in captivity. Bringing it back is, in some ways, the least controversial de-extinction target because the ecological niche it filled is still relatively intact. TechRadar

Even if you never see a real mammoth in person, this story matters for a few reasons.

First, it is the clearest signal yet that we are entering an era where biology is becoming engineerable. The same techniques bringing back extinct species are being used in human medicine, in agriculture, in climate response. The fact that a startup can credibly promise to recreate a mammoth in two years tells you how dramatically biotechnology has advanced. Things that seemed permanently in the realm of science fiction five years ago are now timeline questions, not possibility questions.

Second, it raises real ethical questions worth thinking about. Bringing back a mammoth means raising it in a world that is no longer the world it evolved in. The same logic applies to every other de-extinction target. The question of whether resurrected animals can lead meaningful lives in changed ecosystems is a real one, and one that conservation scientists are actively debating. There is no settled answer.

Third, the funding mechanism is a quiet revolution in how conservation can work. For a century, conservation has relied on philanthropy, government funding, and guilt-driven advocacy. Colossal has shown that the wow factor of de-extinction can pull in capital that would otherwise never enter the conservation ecosystem. Whether that is a good thing depends on whether the funded technology actually helps living species, which it appears to be doing. The next decade will be the real test.

The mammoth coming back is the headline. The genetic tools being built underneath the spectacle, and the strange new model of conservation those tools enable, may end up mattering more than the mammoth itself.

We will keep tracking this and bring you the next chapter as it lands. Stay curious out there.