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Its a horrible article. Grey wolves and dire wolves arent even genetically related in a way that allows for this sort of gene editing and we have known this for a few years now. If anything, a dire wolf is closer to a red wolf.

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It seems their deeper sequencing of dire wolf samples clarified the phylogeny - they claim the dire wolf's closest living relative is the gray wolf, at 99.5% identity. The 2021 study was only able to sequence the dire wolf genome at 0.23x coverage and put a 0.56 probability on their species tree (Fig 2A). https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/255832/1/NatureDireWol...

Yep, an absolutely empty PR grab. And seems not closer to a red wolf either, but entirely distinct from wolves as we know them. Only similar via convergent evolution.[0]

0: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dire-wolves-were-...

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