Colossal Mistake

 Baiting people with Jurassic Park-esque dreams, Colossal seems to be doing something that is as much dangerous as it is fantastic. As much as I'd love to see woolly mammoths, dire wolves, dodos, the real penguins, and other fascinating animals in real life, "de-extinction" is neither the need of the hour nor the right thing to do.

I cannot see any potential viability to the claims made by Colossal Biosciences. The woolly mouse they created as proof of concept seems more like a gimmick to loosen the drawstrings of investors' purse, than a practical solution to rapid extinction in the long run.

From the perspective of the possible revival of Spix's macaws and North Island Kakapos, my suspicion about the real intention of this biotechnology company only grows.

Bringing Back the Dead

Essentially, de-extinction is bringing back the dead. The idea is to create an organism that resembles an extinct organism, as per Wikipedia. Also known as resurrection biology and species revivalism, this idea seems to be flawed in its base.

If we create an animal that resembles, say, a Tasmanian Tiger, it still not the Tasmanian Tiger. What is the point of spending resources to create a new creature when thousands of species are on the brink of extinction - not counting the many that went extinct since IUCN's founding in the 1960s. 

Theoretically, de-extinction is supposed to be a possibility via one of the three technologies - cloning, genome editing and back breeding. Though they all sound plausible, we still seem to not have the technology to successfully bring back an extinct animal.

Cloning creates an organism that is genetically the same as one specific individual of a species. Except for the species with asexual reproduction, we need more individual organisms if the species has to multiply independently as human assistance is rolled back. Even for species with asexual reproduction, unless there are a huge number of cloned units, there will be a severe lack of genetic diversity.

It is like the revival of Spix's Macaw was claimed a success, when the captive bred 200 or so individuals all descend from one single pair, thus leaving this species with no genetic diversity. Extinct in the wild, this lack of genetic diversity will only contribute to complications in further generations while speeding up their extinction.

Unlike cloning, with CRISPER/cas genome editing seems to have a possibility for a higher chance of success. Theoretically. 

By editing the genome of the closest living relative of the extinct organism, the latter can be recreated. Theoretically. 

Now comes the question of making a viable embryo, finding a surrogate to carry the embryo to term, and the post birth realities for both the surrogate and the new born.

Colossal is using this technology to reportedly de-extinct megafauna like woolly mammoths, dire wolves, dodos, and thylacines.

Dire Gimmick

Notice how the list of species include only those that catch the fancy of people, ignoring the many thousands of plants, microbes, and other organisms. Very few are as drawn to other extinct megafauna like some sloth species, many cattle species, western black Rhinocerous among others. Many of these species were alive more recently as compared to dire wolves and mammoths. 

Now, my anti-capitalist heart would love it if the story is, the geneticist George Church is using this gimmickry to pull money from billionaires and serial entrepreneurs to help fund actual conservation. My cynical brain though, does not trust this to be the truth unless there is a solid evidence to believe it. 

There are 45,000+ species currently about to go extinct, while countries are dismantling their protections in the name of economy. As was expected, the US government stated that there was no need to protect species anymore as they can be de-extincted, citing Colossal's dire wolves claim. 

Conservation efforts towards the ground reality and the resources they need for those efforts, I fear, can be very easily diverted to this ill-devised project that cannot deliver it's own claims. Because they never brought back dire wolves.

Coyotes in Wolf's Clothing

Many commercial publications seem to have run with the story of dire wolves coming back. In reality, the wolf pups *look* like dire wolves thanks to their white fur. They are not genetically close to being dire wolves in any meaningful way. 

As someone who is not read at all in biotechnology, I can't help but wonder how different this is from breeding an Indian Spitz to be as big as a Samoyed and then try to claim the mega Spitz is a Samoyed. (Though they'll both be Canis familiaris, and as all dog breeds can successfully interbreed, they are distinct subspecies and cannot - legally and scientifically - be counted as same)

And it has been recently revealed that the animals used for this near-mythical resurrection are not even wolves or jackals - because they are canids classified as Coyotes in the US.

In typical capitalist fashion, the return of the dire wolf was broken with a bang, as the sensationalism would keep the general public from looking deep into the facts. All the while scientists who were calling for more information, and revealing the lies are ignored.

Colossal Claims

Founded by the most accomplished George Church, Colossal claimed to be working on the revival of a handful of extinct megafauna species, some of which had been extinct for a few thousand years now. Which raises other questions about the habitat they'll go to. 

Because the planet is not the same as when they were roaming free. It's not just the lack of wilderness, but the fact that even the atmospheric composition, temperature, and other basic necessities for their survival, are vastly different from their time. It's highly possible that they may not asphyxiate immediately after birth. But how they will survive is still a major question.

Colossal claims that this helps in current conservation efforts and has pulled in various major conservation groups as partners. About 150 scientists, including conservation biologists and bio ethicists, supposedly work with/for them.

However, no one seems to have asked them where these resurrected animals would go. There is a very high chance that they'll be confined in some rich person's vanity wildlife project, which will just be a personal petting zoo. *cough* Vantara *cough*

They cannot be released in the wild, as they'll compete with the existing animals for resources - leading to conflicts and speeding up extinction of other species that are here, now. 

How will this help in conservation efforts?

Other than this just being a bunch of scientists obsessed with whether they can, instead of stopping to think whether they should, this seems nothing more than a vanity project, money funneling scheme for a handful of vile, rich, unethical people.