They're not dire wolves
They're not dire wolves. Not even close. Time magazine has a cover story this week on Colossal Biosciences' latest research progress in de-extinction. They claim repeatedly in the article that three recently born wolf pups are dire wolves, even as the article itself gives enough information to unequivocally dispute that claim. I acknowledge that this is a cool research project and that these animals will exhibit traits that might resemble dire wolves and even that the technology they're developing will have important future applications. But these animals they've produced are not dire wolves. Dire wolves are extinct canids that lived in North America, known from all over the continent, especially from the famed La Brea Tar Pits in California. They were big animals, maybe twice the mass of the gray wolf, and they went extinct along with other big American predators like the American lion and the giant shortfaced bear. And they were common....