To Anyone Who Follows Me, I Don't Care About Nor Trust Colossal Biosciences Anymore (The People Behind

To anyone who follows me, I don't care about nor trust Colossal Biosciences anymore (The people behind the "Wooly Mice"). They have proven themselves to be headline-chasing grifters after this latest stunt. They are claiming to have de-extincted *Aenocyon dirus*, aka the Dire Wolf, by editing just 20 genes from the the DNA of a Grey Wolf (*Canis lupus*) to make this thing:

If it wasn't clear from their scientific names, Grey Wolves and Dire Wolves aren't remotely related to one another aside from being Canids, despite what pop culture like Game of Thrones would have you believe. If they did look like each other, it would have had to be via convergent evolution, as they only shared a common ancestor over 5 million years ago.

This distinction, however, isn't found in the publicized articles about this so-called resurrected Dire Wolf and makes their claim that they brought the Dire Wolf back by simply editing *20* genes from the genome of a Grey Wolf laughable. A Dire Wolf would have shared more in common genetically with a Maned Wolf (*Chrysocyon brachyurus*) or Bush Dog (*Speothos venaticus*) than it would with a Grey Wolf.

Bottom line, don't fall for whatever this company is trying to tell you. If the Dire Wolf were to be brought back, it wouldn't be via something like this, and certainly wouldn't *look* like this. If you want an idea as to how a real Dire Wolf would look like in life, here is some fantastic paleoart by artist Mauricio Antón:

Addendum: I seem to have partially miscalculated Dire Wolf genetics. They were not closer to Maned Wolves or Bush Dogs, but they were still not closely related to Grey Wolves. They were basal members of Canini, related to canids like Jackals (genus Lupulella) but distinct from them. I am sorry for this misinformation in my attempt to correct other misinformation. My main point, however, is still correct.

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bloodyraven1001

4 months ago

kinda crazy how few dany twow theories seem to take into account that ***an archmaester of the citadel who traveled around the known world and studied in asshai who is known as “the mage” and gives way more credence to magic & the supernatural than any maester*** AND ***a red priest with a dragon’s head staff spitting green flame who makes so-far very accurate predictions in the flames and may possibly be the 2nd most “powerful” red priest in the world with a magic dragon horn near him*** are coming around dany’s orbit. like i think the whole storyline with/around dany in twow is gonna be a lot more than just the political conflicts of the free cities & iron throne claim crisis. magic/prophecies/dragonlore is gonna be just as (and probably more) important to everything imo

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the way this fandom (especially on reddit) INSISTS on overlooking the magic and fantasy elements of this world is astounding unless knocked directly into their faces they would simply not think of it

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bloodyraven1001

3 months ago

Official Japanese Covers Of ASOIAF By Yasushi Suzuki

Official Japanese covers of ASOIAF by Yasushi Suzuki

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bloodyraven1001

4 months ago

on reread you can really see how the small council in ADWD is a pale shadow of the council ned dealt with in AGOT. everyone in there had a damn angle. renly's trying to get robert to do a proper henry viii by getting him to marry margaery. littlefinger's running the world's biggest ponzi scheme while also having time to pull a psychosexual great gatsby on the side. pycelle has his lannister lapdog dynamic going on and varys is actively plotting the downfall of the royal dynasty for twenty years. meanwhile what does the small council in adwd have? harys swyft and paxter redwyne? bunch of rich guys from the reach trying to claw out a even more influence for themselves? ok. thats tuesday in westeros. littlefinger is engineering civil wars while gyles rosby is dying of consumption. we used to be a proper country

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they should have given Taena all the offices not for the realm or anything just she'd serve a lot of cunt that's all both literally and figuratively

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bloodyraven1001

2 months ago

me re-scrolling thru older convos w/ my friends becuase i remember how much i enjoyed talking to them about the subject

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bloodyraven1001

3 months ago

Trying my hand at designing s1 crew. was just going to design Tim but then I drew a Sasha and then I was like ok I’ll draw jmart too i guess. and also some pictures of my real life cat Jonathan (the better, superior Jonathan)