'Game of Thrones' author George R.R. Martin upclose with ‘de-extincted’ dire wolves 

MANILA, Philippines — The “Game of Thrones” author George R. R. Martin has held the creatures he described as the beloved pets of the Stark children in his high fantasy books.

Martin revealed that he met the twin dire wolves, Remus and Romulus, last February, along with the team of “mad scientists” in Colossal, the agency that works on the “de-extinction” of long-gone animal species such as the dire wolf. 

“The dire wolf is back. Extinct for more than 10,000 years, but extinct no longer,” Martin wrote on his blog last Tuesday, April 8, the day that TIME and other news outlets broke the news of the species’ “return.”

The popular author posted on his blog the press release for the “de-extinction” feat. 

“The dire wolf, largely assumed to be a legendary creature made famous from the HBO hit series ‘Game of Thrones,’ was an American canid that had previously been extinct for over 12,500 years. The successful birth of three dire wolves is a revolutionary milestone of scientific progress that illustrates another leap forward in Colossal’s de-extinction technologies and is a critical step on the pathway to the de-extinction of other target species,” the release reads. 

Colossal Chief Executive Officer Ben Lamm said that their team took DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies. The three litters of dire wolves gave birth to the twins and one female puppy named Khaleesi, obviously named after Daenerys Targaryen, one of the popular characters of “Game of Thrones,” who is also known as the "Mother of the Dragons."

The twin dire wolves were born on October 1, 2024. They are being held and monitored in a nature preserve surrounded by a three-meter tall fencing. Colossal said that the three dire wolves will not be released into the wild. 

Apart from the dire wolves, Colossal said that it also “birthed” two litters of red wolves that include one adolescent female red wolf named Hope, and three male red wolf puppies named Blaze, Cinder and Ash. 

While the news of the rebirth of the dire wolves was generally met with enthusiasm largely by fans of “Game of Thrones,” a number of scientists shared their thoughts on Colossal’s recent “de-extinction” project. 

In an article on Live Science, several scientists explained why Colossal’s dire wolves are not exactly the dire wolves that used to roam earth over 10,000 years ago. 

David Mech, an adjunct professor specializing in wolf ecology and behavior in University of Minnesota and senior research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, told Live Science that new information shows the original dire wolf was not really a wolf. 

It added that the dire wolves split from wolves roughly six million years ago. University of Otago zoology professor Philip Seddon said that dire wolves are in their own genus, thus they are a “very different species.” 

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