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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Ben Lamm says George R.R. Martin cried when he realized Colossal Biosciences’ wolf-like animals were real. Lamm says Martin later visited the secure preserve, held Romulus, and told him, “I write about magic, but you have actually created magic.” The animals, however, are not exact resurrected dire wolves: they are genetically engineered gray wolves designed to express selected traits associated with the extinct species.
What Ben Lamm says happened
According to Colossal Biosciences co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm, George R.R. Martin cried when he realized the animals he was seeing were real—not computer-generated. Lamm says the author later visited the company’s secure ecological preserve, held one of the animals, Romulus, and told him: “I write about magic, but you have actually created magic.”
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That account comes from Lamm’s interview and should be treated as a reported anecdote, not as an independently witnessed description of Martin’s private reaction. It is also important to separate Martin’s emotional response from the more complicated scientific claim behind the animals: Colossal created genetically engineered gray wolves designed to express selected traits associated with the extinct dire wolf. The company calls them functionally or morphologically de-extincted dire wolves, but that terminology is disputed.
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Martin first saw the animals remotely
Lamm said filmmaker Peter Jackson introduced him to Martin. During the first presentation, Lamm reportedly asked Martin to keep the project confidential. Martin allegedly questioned whether the wolves were genuine, removed his glasses, and became emotional when he understood that he was looking at living animals rather than visual effects.
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Lamm says Martin later traveled to the preserve and held Romulus. It was during that visit, according to Lamm, that Martin delivered the line about “created magic.” The story has an obvious literary resonance: Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books and the Game of Thrones television adaptation helped make dire wolves familiar to millions of people, even though the fictional animals are not scientific depictions of the extinct species.
What Colossal actually produced
Colossal says it produced three animals: two males named Romulus and Remus, born on October 1, 2024, and a female named Khaleesi, born on January 30, 2025.
| Animal | Sex | Birth date |
|---|---|---|
| Romulus | Male | October 1, 2024 |
| Remus | Male | October 1, 2024 |
| Khaleesi | Female | January 30, 2025 |
The company says its researchers made 20 targeted edits across 14 genes in gray-wolf cells. To identify differences relevant to the extinct animal, Colossal used genetic information from ancient dire-wolf specimens, including a 13,000-year-old tooth and a sample described as coming from a 72,000-year-old skull or ear bone.
Colossal says the ancient dire-wolf material was used as a genetic reference and that ancient dire-wolf DNA was not directly inserted into the gray-wolf genome. The resulting animals are reported to have traits including a white coat, a larger skull, broader shoulders, more muscular legs, and distinctive vocalizations. Those are company-reported characteristics and should not be confused with evidence that every feature of a dire wolf has been restored.
Are these truly dire wolves?
The most accurate short answer is: they are living, genetically engineered gray wolves designed to display selected dire-wolf traits. Whether that qualifies as “de-extinction” depends on how the term is defined.
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The extinct dire wolf is commonly identified as Aenocyon dirus. It was not simply a modern gray wolf that had grown larger. A 2021 study published in Nature concluded that dire wolves belonged to a highly divergent ancient New World canid lineage. The lineage split from living canids roughly 5.7 million years ago, a much deeper evolutionary separation than the popular image of a large gray wolf suggests.
That evolutionary history is why scientists and science journalists have qualified Colossal’s language. The project began with living gray-wolf cells, not with a living dire-wolf cell or a complete dire-wolf genome. Researchers used ancient genetic data to identify differences and then selected a limited number of targets for editing. Changing 20 sites across 14 genes can influence visible or physiological traits, but it does not recreate an extinct animal’s entire genome, development, behavior, microbiome, or ecological role.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute| Claim | What the available evidence supports |
|---|---|
| Colossal made real animals | Yes. Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi are living animals, according to the company and reporting about the project. |
| The animals contain selected dire-wolf traits | Colossal says targeted edits were intended to produce traits identified through comparison with ancient dire-wolf genetic information. |
| Ancient dire-wolf DNA was inserted directly | No. Colossal says it did not directly splice ancient dire-wolf DNA into the gray-wolf genome. |
| The animals are exact genetic restorations of Aenocyon dirus | No. The animals began as gray wolves and carry a limited set of targeted modifications. |
| An extinct wild species has been fully resurrected | That is not established. “Functionally” or “morphologically de-extincted” is Colossal’s terminology, not an uncontested scientific conclusion. |
Why “cloned dire wolf” is misleading
Some headlines have described the project as cloning an ancient dire wolf. That wording suggests that scientists recovered a complete ancient genome, placed it into a reproductive cell, and reproduced the extinct species. The available description does not support that account.
Colossal’s process used gray-wolf cells and genetic engineering. Independent reporting quoted the company’s chief scientist, Beth Shapiro, describing the animals as cloned gray wolves with 20 modified genes. Colossal has maintained that its functional or morphological definition of de-extinction supports calling them dire wolves, while outside scientists have emphasized the difference between expressing selected traits and restoring an extinct lineage.
Both parts of the story matter. Calling the animals “dire wolves” reflects the company’s chosen definition and the traits it says it achieved. Calling them genetically modified gray wolves reflects their biological starting point and the limited scope of the edits. The careful description is that Colossal created genetically engineered gray wolves designed to express key traits identified from the extinct dire wolf and calls the result functionally de-extincted dire wolves.
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They are not wild dire wolves—and have not been released
The animals are being kept in a secure ecological preserve rather than released into North American ecosystems. They are not a self-sustaining wild population, and there is no claim that they are ready to take the place of the extinct species in nature.
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Behavior is one reason that distinction matters. Even if an animal has a body shape or vocalization associated with an extinct species, it does not automatically possess that species’ learned hunting strategies, social behavior, prey relationships, or habitat knowledge. Reporting has noted that these animals would not learn specialized dire-wolf hunting behavior from wild dire-wolf parents—because no such parents exist.
The project therefore represents a biotechnology experiment and conservation discussion, not the restoration of a missing predator to the wild. The preserve setting also allows the company to monitor the animals’ health and development without introducing them into ecosystems that evolved without dire wolves for thousands of years.
Why the story resonates with Martin
Martin’s connection to the project is more than a celebrity cameo. Dire wolves are central to the Stark family’s identity in A Song of Ice and Fire, beginning with the discovery of the dire-wolf pups near Winterfell in A Game of Thrones. That cultural backdrop is fictional, but it helps explain why the sight of living wolf-like animals carrying the names Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi would be especially powerful for Martin.
Readers who want to revisit the fictional dire wolves can start with A Game of Thrones, Martin’s first A Song of Ice and Fire novel. The book is the literary source of the Stark family’s world—not a scientific source on dire wolves, ancient DNA, or de-extinction.
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The screen adaptation is another route back into that fictional world. Readers who want to revisit it can explore the Game of Thrones adaptation, although the current platform availability of the series varies by country and date and is not identified here.
Martin’s broader conservation position
Martin has also framed de-extinction as part of a wider conservation debate. In his public commentary, he has rejected the idea that efforts to revive lost traits or species must come at the expense of protecting animals that are endangered today. He has pointed to Colossal’s work involving the red wolf as an example of technology that could have conservation relevance.
He has also objected to the argument that de-extinction would make laws such as the U.S. Endangered Species Act unnecessary. In that view, developing new biotechnology does not remove the need to protect living species, preserve habitats, and enforce existing conservation safeguards.
That is Martin’s position, not a settled scientific or policy conclusion. De-extinction research may produce tools useful for conservation, but those possible benefits have to be weighed against animal welfare, ecological risk, genetic limitations, cost, and the danger that spectacular projects could draw attention away from species currently facing extinction.
The accurate takeaway
Ben Lamm says George R.R. Martin cried after seeing Colossal’s animals and later described the work as “magic.” The emotional story is compelling, especially because Martin’s fiction made dire wolves a lasting part of popular culture. But the biotechnology needs more precise language.
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Colossal did not clone a complete ancient dire wolf or insert a recovered dire-wolf genome into a modern animal. It edited gray-wolf cells at 20 targeted sites across 14 genes, using ancient dire-wolf genetic information to guide the selection of some traits. The three resulting animals are real and unusual, but they are not exact genetic replicas of Aenocyon dirus, nor are they wild replacements for the extinct species.
The strongest conclusion is therefore a qualified one: Martin reacted emotionally to animals that Colossal says represent a functional or morphological form of dire-wolf de-extinction, while scientists and the company’s own chief scientist have described the biology more narrowly—as genetically modified or cloned gray wolves carrying selected dire-wolf characteristics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did George R.R. Martin really cry when he saw the animals?
According to Ben Lamm, Martin first saw the animals remotely and questioned whether they were computer-generated. Lamm says Martin later visited the secure preserve, held Romulus, and became emotional. The account is Lamm’s reported anecdote rather than an independently witnessed description.
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Are Colossal’s animals exact dire wolves?
No—not in the strict biological sense. Colossal created the animals from gray-wolf cells and made 20 targeted edits across 14 genes. The company calls them functionally or morphologically de-extincted dire wolves, but independent reporting and Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief scientist, have described them more narrowly as cloned or genetically modified gray wolves with selected dire-wolf traits.
Did scientists put ancient dire-wolf DNA into a modern wolf?
No. Colossal says it used genetic information from ancient dire-wolf specimens, including a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull or ear-bone sample, to guide its work. It also says ancient dire-wolf DNA was not directly inserted into the gray-wolf genome.
Have the engineered wolves been released into the wild?
The animals are being kept in a secure ecological preserve and have not been presented as a released, self-sustaining wild population. They would also lack the opportunity to learn specialized hunting behavior from wild dire-wolf parents.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: Lamm’s account says Martin was moved to tears by seeing the living animals, but the animals are not resurrected dire wolves in the literal sense. They are genetically engineered gray wolves with a limited set of selected traits associated with the extinct Aenocyon dirus.
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