Life after extinction Science or science fiction?

A startup's plans for resurrecting lost creatures have caught the public's imagination but many researchers doubt that such a feat is possible

- By Patrick Greenfield

Ben Lamm, founder of Colossal Biosciences, with a 'dire wolf' cub in front of illustrations of three extinct animals he hopes to revive: the giant moa, the dodo and the woolly mammoth

Death and taxes are usually the things we can depend on in this life.

But in 2025, the American entrepreneur Ben Lamm sold much of the world on the idea that death did not, after all, need to be for ever.

This was the year the billionaire's genetics startup, Colossal Biosciences, claimed it had resurrected the dire wolf, an animal that disappeared at the end of the last ice age, by tweaking the DNA of grey wolves. According to the company, it had also edged closer to bringing the woolly mammoth back from the dead, with the creation of genetically engineered "woolly mice".

In a flurry of high-profile announcements and press releases, it launched projects to revive the Tasmanian tiger (also known as the thylacine), the dodo and the moa, a three-metre tall bird that has been extinct for 600 years.

"We've made a lot of big promises to the world," Lamm told the Guardian. "I think that we started to deliver."

Lamm, a 44-year-old veteran of gaming and AI startups, has brought a brash Silicon Valley showmanship and entrepreneurial drive to the genetic conservation sector - and his approach so far has been extremely lucrative.

He quickly realised that de-extinction announcements were a recipe for excitement and publicity. When the company announced its "woolly mouse", he recalled, "people were losing their minds".

Watching the response, Lamm thought: "Oh my gosh, they're going to go crazy about the dire wolf stuff."

When Colossal unveiled its interpretation of the dire wolf last April, the news made international headlines.