"He belonged to which Stark kid?" — Internet reacts as Remus, world's first dire wolf in 10,000 years, makes it to the cover of TIME

Netizens have reacted to Remus, the dire wolf, making the cover of TIME magazine. According to The Economic Times, scientists at the biotech company Colossal Biosciences have been able to bring back the dire wolf species, which became extinct nearly 10,000 years ago.

On Tuesday, April 7, the Dallas-based company took to X to introduce the world to Remus and Romulus, "the world's first de-extinct animals," who were born on October 1, 2024.

"These two wolves were brought back from extinction using genetic edits derived from a complete dire wolf genome, meticulously reconstructed by Colossal from ancient DNA found in fossils dating back 11,500 and 72,000 years. This moment marks not only a milestone for us as a company but also a leap forward for science, conservation, and humanity," the post explained.

Remus and Romulus were followed by a female dire wolf named Khaleesi, who was born in January 2025.

The news quickly gained traction, with TIME Magazine featuring Remus on the cover of its May 2025 edition. The cover featured a red strikethrough across the word "Extinct."

"This is Remus. He's a dire wolf. The first to exist in over 10,000 years. Endangered species could be changed forever," the caption added.

Netizens have taken to X to share their reactions to the de-extinction of Remus and Romulus. Among them, @whatRanjuSaid made a lighthearted reference to the dire wolves belonging to the Stark family from the television series Game of Thrones.

"He belonged to which Stark kid?" an X user quipped.

"Romulus is going to be pissed — why does only Remus get the cover!? You can’t fit both? This is why brothers have issues," wrote another.

"Don’t know how anyone else feels, but I find this concerning. What’s next? Jurassic park? It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature. If something is extinct, there must be a reason. 10k years ago it wasn’t because of climate change or humans. They went extinct for a reason we can’t possibly understand, I am afraid we might find out," another user claimed on X.

"Due to the cloning process, and extraction method developed to harvest what little DNA is needed for replicating and genetic editing, there is a slight aberration in the Genome of this animal. It is not actually a Dire Wolf, it is about as close as we can currently get to one," added another.

One user noted that the dire wolves won't have anyone to mate with, writing:

"That dire fella ain't gonna get to MATE, so... He's not so happy."

"Whoa, I love the idea of a dire wolf back in the spotlight! Remus looks absolutely majestic. Do you think we’re ready for a world where extinct species could come back?" commented another.

"Phenotypes are not genotypes; this is a grey wolf that has physical traits similar to the Dire Wolf. Wasn't the Dire Wolf known to weigh something like 400 - 600 lbs?" pointed out another user.

Some other reactions on X are as follows:

"Things become extinct for a reason. Do you find human intervention to always be the best measure?" a user commented.

"Jurassic park just became a real possibility, we are cooked, there is a reason why something goes extinct 10000 years ago. They were OFC not due to anthropogenic reasons. Dire wolfs were keystone species and if they were not there for 10k years they are not required anymore. They will disturb the current ecology and food chain," claimed another.

"So if we DO get into de-extinction efforts, where's the line that we draw? I feel like the Wooly Mammoth is about as close to dinos as we should get. MAYBE make ONE small dino JUST to see. But like kill it right after," inferred another user on X.

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More about the biotech company that brought dire wolf back to life after 10,000 years

Colossal: Technology Company Turning Science Fiction To Science Fact - Source: Getty

The official website of Colossal Biosciences reports that it was founded in 2021 by CEO Ben Lamm and is based in Dallas, Texas. The company is backed by several celebrity investors, including Paris Hilton, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Brady, and Peter Jackson. Currently, evolutionary molecular biologist Beth Shapiro serves as the company's Chief Science Officer. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is also an advisor to Colossal Biosciences.

As reported by TIME Magazine, the company has been trying to bring back the woolly mammoth since 2021. The species has reportedly been extinct for the last 4,000 years. To achieve this, the company collected the genomes of 60 mammoths buried in the Arctic permafrost.

However, they couldn't use the zygotes of Asian elephants for their stem cell experiments because the species is endangered. Instead, the experiments were conducted on mice. As reported by the Houston Chronicle, two mice (named Chip and Dale) grew bigger than usual and developed thick, woolly fur.

Soon after, CEO Ben Lamm announced the creation of the woolly mice as a "watershed moment" for the company.

"The Colossal Woolly Mouse marks a watershed moment in our de-extinction mission. By engineering multiple cold-tolerant traits from mammoth evolutionary pathways into a living model species, we've proven our ability to recreate complex genetic combinations that took nature millions of years to create," he said.

The company's future aspirations reportedly include recreating the woolly mammoth, the dodo bird, and the Tasmanian tiger.

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