There was a time when bringing extinct creatures back to life was just the stuff of novels and movies. Now, it’s not so far-fetched. Scientists are serious about the idea — especially when it comes to woolly mammoths.
The basic idea? Use preserved DNA and modern genetic tools to engineer something close to what used to roam the Earth thousands of years ago. That "something" might not be a true mammoth — not genetically, anyway — but more of a cold-adapted elephant with mammoth-like traits. Some believe these creatures could help restore damaged ecosystems in the Arctic. Others wonder if we’re simply crossing a line we can’t uncross.
Either way, this is no longer science fiction.
The Mammoth Plan
Woolly mammoths went extinct a few thousand years ago, leaving behind frozen remains in the tundra — some with hair, skin, even bits of usable DNA. That’s more than enough to get geneticists interested.
One of the more vocal efforts comes from Colossal Biosciences, a company aiming to insert mammoth DNA sequences into Asian elephant embryos. They’re calling it de-extinction, though what they’re building isn’t exactly a cloned mammoth. It’s something new — a hybrid.
The reasoning behind it isn't just for the wow factor. Supporters argue that reintroducing large herbivores to Arctic regions might slow climate change by preventing permafrost from thawing too quickly. But that’s still theoretical. And the animals, if they’re ever born, would need to survive in a world that’s moved on without them.
A Win for Ancient DNA: The Dire Wolf Study
While the mammoth project is still underway, one success story quietly unfolded in a very different corner of the lab — and it didn’t involve bringing anything back to life.
In 2021, scientists managed to sequence the complete genome of the dire wolf, an extinct predator that lived in the Americas until around 10,000 years ago. What they found surprised everyone. Dire wolves, long thought to be close relatives of modern wolves, turned out to be something else entirely — a distant evolutionary cousin that split off millions of years ago.
The research didn’t involve cloning, but it did something important: it proved that ancient DNA could survive longer than previously thought, and that sequencing extinct species might be more possible — and more revealing — than we imagined.
It also expanded the scope of de-extinction science. If we can read the full genome of a dire wolf, we can, in theory, do more than just study them. Whether we should is still an open question.
Playing God, or Fixing What We Broke?
That’s the tension at the center of all this: just because we might be able to revive a species — or something close to it — doesn’t mean we should.
Some researchers argue that we owe it to the planet to repair what human activity helped destroy. Others worry that reviving extinct animals could distract from efforts to save the endangered species we still have. There are also real questions about what happens if these animals do come back. Where will they live? What will they eat? How will they affect today’s ecosystems?
It’s not hard to imagine well-meaning efforts going sideways. After all, ecosystems are delicate, and nature doesn’t always respond well to being tinkered with.
A Future Still Being Written
For now, de-extinction is still more of a goal than a reality. No woolly mammoths have been born. No dire wolves are roaming again. But the science is inching forward — in labs, through genomes, and in debates happening all over the world.
Maybe one day we’ll see mammoth-like creatures walking across the tundra again. Or maybe we’ll decide it’s better to leave the past alone. Either way, the conversation has already begun — and it’s forcing us to rethink what’s possible, and what’s responsible.