Extinct organisms are revived continually through museum displays, the wonders of filmmaking, and even the pages of an illustrated volume.

But envision stroking the enormous furry trunk of a woolly mammoth or gazing into the strange eyes of a dodo.

Beth Shapiro has felt the fur of a living, breathing dire wolf, a species that vanished from North America 10,000 years ago. Shapiro BS ’99, MS ’99, the chief scientific officer of the “de-extinction” startup Colossal Biosciences, assisted in bringing three dire wolf pups into existence in late 2024 and early 2025 through the modification of the gray wolf’s genes.

The mammoth, the dodo, and the Tasmanian tiger could be next.

The revival, or de-extinction, of long-gone species prompts many inquiries.

Is it moral? Is it secure?

In her 2015 work How to Clone a Mammoth, Shapiro tackled these inquiries, presenting a sort of guide that explores both the possibilities and challenges of such an undertaking.

Yet another crucial question arises: How did Shapiro become one of the prominent advocates for the once fanciful concept of bringing back extinct species?

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