Is this ‘de-extinction’ project actually onto something?

Dallas-based genetics and biotech startup Colossal has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from venture capitalists, the CIA, and Peter Thiel , among others . Its buzzy “de-extinction” projects aim to “bring back” lost animals like the woolly mammoth , the Tasmanian tiger , and the dire wolf — although it isn’t creating copies of extinct creatures from ancient DNA, as the “de-extinction” tagline may suggest. In the case of the “ dire wolves ” presented to the world in 2025, the pups were gray wolves spliced with a few genetic traits to somewhat resemble the dire wolves. This ambitious branding opened the company up to questions about its conservation efforts and criticism for apparently not really “de-extincting” anything at all. Colossal’s latest “de-extinction” project, announced in April, seems to represent something of an adjustment to its public-facing strategy. It’s focused on a plan for the bluebuck, a species of South African antelope that went extinct around 1800. Colossal CEO Ben Lamm was quick to say that the technology developed for the project can already be used in conservation efforts — and it will be made available as a resource outside of the company. “We made enough progress [that] some of those technologies could be immediately applicable to antelope conservation — and about 30 percent of antelopes are threatened with extinction,” Lamm told The Verge. …