What Beth Shapiro has said about Dire wolf
3 quotes · 1 episode · Oct 5, 2026
Beth Shapiro, American evolutionary biologist and Chief Science Officer at Colossal Biosciences, formerly a professor at UC Santa Cruz and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has been quoted on Dire wolf 3 times in 1 episode of Huberman Lab, most recently on October 5, 2026. Each quote below is verbatim and links to the moment it was said.
In their words
Shapiro says Colossal's dire wolves were made by engineering 20 fossil-informed edits into a gray wolf genome, and she is content to call the result a dire wolf if it fills the niche.
“If it looks like a dire wolf and it's able to fill the niche of a dire wolf, I'm happy to call it a dire wolf”
Huberman Lab: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life | Dr. Beth Shapiro (Oct 5, 2026) · Listen from 57:03
Shapiro says Colossal avoided the actual dire wolf coat-color variants because related edits in gray wolves and dogs can cause albinism, blindness or deafness, using known-safe variants instead.
“We wouldn't make the trait that way. It just wasn't passing the bar of animal welfare safety”
Huberman Lab: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life | Dr. Beth Shapiro (Oct 5, 2026) · Listen from 59:18
Shapiro states Colossal does not plan to release dire wolves into the wild because they would compete with already struggling gray wolves.
“if we released dire wolves, they would compete with gray wolves. And gray wolves are already having enough trouble trying to find a way to survive”
Huberman Lab: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life | Dr. Beth Shapiro (Oct 5, 2026) · Listen from 1:06:56
Episodes
Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life | Dr. Beth ShapiroHuberman Lab · Oct 5, 2026 · 2 h 16 min
Andrew Huberman talks with evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro about species concepts, Neanderthal DNA, Colossal Biosciences' de-extinction projects, genetic rescue, and the ethics of human genetic selection.
Beth Shapiro on other topics
- De-extinction · 3 quotes
- Colossal Biosciences · 2 quotes
- Neanderthal admixture · 2 quotes
- Artificial womb · 1 quote
- Black-footed ferret · 1 quote
- Human germline editing and embryo screening · 1 quote
- Gene drive · 1 quote
- Northern quoll · 1 quote