Some of the media headlines have been breathless. Time magazine hailed “The Return of the Dire Wolf.” On the venerable news magazine’s cover, the word “Extinct” is crossed out. “This is Remus,” the cover declares, above the image of a large white canid. “He’s a dire wolf. The first to exist in 10,000 years. Endangered species could be changed forever.” Rolling Stone was equally credulous: “12,000 years later, Dire Wolves are back.”

No. As The Washington Post and Scientific American ably pointed out, Remus is not really a dire wolf. They aren’t “back.” Dire wolves are still extinct. A company called Colossal Biosciences, backed by Peter Thiel, among other God-cosplaying billionaires, was able to breed grey wolves with some dire wolf DNA, creating some bigger and whiter creatures. In addition to a sister, Khaleesi, there are two wolf brothers, named Romulus and Remus for the human twins who, according to mythology, were suckled by a wolf mother, in a series of unlikely events leading to the founding of Rome.

You can’t make this stuff up: As the American empire teeters on the brink of collapse, the billionaires laying waste to what’s left of our natural world and human civilization are not only trying to bring back dangerous, long-extinct animals but naming them after the mythological founders of an empire that........

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