Lower thirds:

00:02 Report by Pablo Foley Elias
00:18 Beth Shapiro | Jefe Científico en "Colossal Biosciences"
01:20 Corey Bradshaw | Professor of Global Ecology

Script:

0:00 ATMO

0:03 

This is Romulus and Remus. Scientists claim these months old creatures are dire wolves - an animal that's been extinct for over 12,500 years.   

But now brought back to life, thanks to modern technology. 

0:17

SOT Beth Shapiro, Chief Scientist at Colossal

"A gray wolf is the closest living relative of a dire wolf. They're genetically really similar, 99.5% similar.Only dire wolves are larger, more muscular and have these light-colored coats and other things that we can see from the fossils. And so we targeted. DNA sequence variants that we believe lead to those traits. And then we edited gray wolf cells to contain those dire wolf DNA variants. And then, we cloned those cells and created our dire wolves."

0:48 

Scientists from the biotech company Colossal Biosciences says a total of three dire wolves have been created. They were born with the help of surrogates and are now between three and six months old.

The US-based company has also claimed to have cloned critically endangered red wolves as well as mice genetically engineered to have traits of the extinct wool mammoth. 

But some scientists are skeptical of Colossal's claims.

1:16

SOT Corey Bradshaw, PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL ECOLOGY AT FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

“When you claim all these great big things and then you don't provide the associated evidence, especially in something as controversial as this, that is a massive red flag. It suggests that, well, at best, they've over-exaggerated. At worst, they're lying through their teeth.”

1:38 

One thing independent scientists are sure of is that these animals won't be roaming the North American grasslands any time soon.   

1:47 end