After 12,500 years! Extinct 'Game of Thrones' dire wolves brought back to life after thousands of years

Dire wolves, popularized by the "Game of Thrones" series, have been extinct for around 12,500 years Thanks to genetic engineering, they have been brought back to life.

Colossal Biosciences Inc., a biotech firm in Dallas. announced the birth of three dire wolves, named Romulus, Remus, and Kheleesi, making them the world's first de-extinct animals.

Genetic edits were made possible using a complete dire wolf genome and ancient DNA from fossils, including a 72,000-year-old skull from Idaho and a 13,000-year-old tooth from Ohio

The announcement was shared on Colossal Biosciences' social media, revealing photos and the first howl of the dire wolves in over 10,000 years

These dire wolf pups are currently living in a fenced nature preserve at an undisclosed location in the US, and their diet includes beef, deer, horse meat, and specially formulated kibble

Dire wolves were apex predators during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs, weighing around 150 pounds—heavier than today's gray wolves

Dire wolves preyed on Ice Age horses and ground sloths, making them formidable carnivores in their time