August 17, 2026 ยท Tags: de-extinction, genetics, conservation, biotechnology, colossal
Colossal Biosciences is worth $10.2 billion. Paris Hilton, Tom Brady, and George R.R. Martin are among its investors. The company says it will produce woolly mammoth calves by 2028. That deadline is eighteen months away, and what the company is actually building is both less and more than a zoo of resurrected species.
The Technology Is Real, but It Is Not Resurrection #
De-extinction runs on three things: sequencing ancient DNA from museum skins and permafrost, editing the genes of a living relative with CRISPR, and implanting the result into a surrogate. For the mammoth, the surrogate is an Asian elephant. For the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), a fat-tailed dunnart. For the dodo, a chicken.
None of these produce a genetic replica of the extinct animal. They produce a hybrid. An elephant with mammoth hair and cold-adapted fat. A chicken with a dodo beak. Colossal's "dire wolf" puppies from last year were grey wolves edited with about 20 dire wolf genes. That is genuinely impressive genetic engineering. It is not resurrection, and calling it that confuses what is actually happening.
The Real Fight Is About Money #
The loudest argument against de-extinction is not scientific. It is about where the money goes. Colossal has raised over $615 million. A 2022 survey of 347 conservation biologists found 78.4% think de-extinction pulls resources away from protecting species that still exist. Only 34.2% supported prioritizing de-extinction funding Source: Ecological Impact Assessment of De-Extinction Projects.
The ecological risks are not hypothetical. Drop a mammoth proxy into Siberian tundra and it meets pathogens it has no immunity to, competes with established wildlife, and might disrupt permafrost in ways nobody has modeled well. The same survey rates mammoth habitat disruption risk at 7.8 out of 10. Passenger pigeon reintroduction scores 8.1 for competition alone.
Then there is the extinction-offsetting problem. If people start believing extinction is reversible, the pressure to protect habitat and prevent species loss drops. You cannot measure that in a survey, but it is probably the most dangerous long-term effect.
What the Critics Miss #
The spinoff technologies Colossal is building may matter more than the headline species. Better genome editing. Better reproductive technology for endangered animals. AI-powered monitoring of reintroduced populations.
Colossal's newest target is the bluebuck, an antelope that went extinct around 1800. Chief science officer Beth Shapiro did not pitch it as a spectacle. She said the work is about "building the scientific foundation for antelope conservation before more of its relatives are lost" Source: Business Insider Africa on Colossal's Bluebuck Project. Twenty-nine of the roughly 90 antelope species are currently threatened. If the reproductive tools built for the bluebuck help some of them, that justifies the project more than any mammoth calf.
Why This Matters #
De-extinction is a real capability that is being oversold as a conservation strategy. The science has moved past "can we do it" to "should we, for which species, and who pays." My read: the spinoff technologies will save more living species than the de-extinct ones ever will. That is not a bad outcome. It is just not the one people imagine when they hear "bringing back the woolly mammoth."