The Nightmare of a Real Jurassic Park
The concept of bringing back extinct species from the past has always been a fascination among fans and writers of science fiction; popularized by Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, which presented the world with the awe and the beauty of bringing back prehistoric animals while allowing the audience have the glimpse of the horrifying consequences (albeit in an over-the-top Hollywood fashion), the debate of bringing back extinct species has long been a topic of controversy. This idea of bringing Jurassic Park to life, however, is no longer an unrealistic dream.
In the first few months of 2025, Colossal Biolabs announced they had bought back the dire wolf species, an ancestor of modern wolves dating back from 10,000 years ago, through the methods not too different from the Hollywood movies: after obtaining a fossil of the wolves, scientists extracted DNA and genetically sequenced pups that resembled the dire wolves. Subsequently, real dire wolves were actually created. Although these wolves are a hybrid creation of a mess of sequences from modern wolves mixed in with traits of dire wolves, the de-extinction process of animals raises moral questions as Colossal attempts to bring back Wooly Mammoths. While the concept of bringing these creatures back is fascinating as it may promote more biodiversity, reviving extinct creatures means opposing nature and fighting against natural selection. Creating these animals for the purpose of humans and commodifying their lives raises large ethical questions.
The world has changed drastically since these creatures went extinct. Hence, they are no longer fit to live in our current world. For instance, global temperatures have risen dramatically since the era that dire wolves roamed the planet. Reintroducing dire wolves back into natural populations would be catastrophic not only for the wolves, but also for the surrounding ecosystems they are being introduced back into. The wolves may face unprecedented health issues as the result of the immense change in conditions, similar to that of polar bears living in mid-lateral climates. Even if the wolves manage to adapt to their new environments over time, ecosystems may not be ready to support a new species of apex predator and cause too much competition on resources destroying the food web and harming other species living in the area. This unintended introduction of “invasive species” to areas will disrupt nature as these novel predators outcompete native species for resources. For instance, European Starlings have outcompeted other species currently occupying the area, reproducing more quickly than the other species in the area, throwing off natural balance of predator-prey cycles and disturbing population numbers of other birds, replacing them gradually.
Humanity should never tamper with nature’s given life and death. Engineering life, including resurrections, clonings, and exterminations, raises too many ethical questions that impact the way we handle the concept of life. Bringing back species for our sake of curiosity not only commodifies life, but also encourages further ventures of risking serious ethical dilemmas. Reviving extinct species would be opening Pandora’s Box, exposing ourselves to a future of chaos beyond our control and leading us to a dystopia that would eventually exterminate humanity.
