El regreso del lobo terrible
ciencia, fantasía… ¿o el inicio de una nueva era genética?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29105/bys9.18-278Keywords:
de-extinction, CRISPR-Cas9, dire wolf, genetic conservation, biotechnology, environmental ethicsAbstract
In 2025, the company Colossal Biosciences announced the birth of three pups with characteristics of the extinct Aenocyon dirus, better known as the “dire wolf.” By using fragments of ancient DNA and genetic editing tools such as CRISPR-Cas9, the genome of gray wolves was modified to phenotypically recreate this extinct species. This achievement has generated both fascination and debate: is it a revolutionary advance in conservation or a genetic distraction in the face of the current loss of biodiversity?
Downloads
References
Cohen, S. 2014. The ethics of de-extinction. NanoEthics, 8(2), 165–178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-014-0201-2
Colossal Biosciences. 2025. Dire Wolf Project Overview. https://colossal.com/direwolf/
Odenbaugh, J. 2023. Philosophy and ethics of de-extinction. Cambridge Prisms: Extinction, 1,e7,1–7 https://doi.org/10.1017/ext.2023.4
Perri, A.R., K.J. Mitchell, A. Mouton, et al. 2021. Dire wolves were the last of an ancient New World canid lineage. Nature 591, 87–91. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03082-x
Shapiro, B. 2020. Pathways to de-extinction: how close can we get to resurrection of an extinct species? Functional Ecology 31, 996–1002. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.12705

