Colossal Biosciences says it has produced genetically edited mice with curly, textured, golden-brown coats inspired by traits associated with woolly mammoths. They are still mice—not mammoths, mammoth hybrids, or evidence that the extinct species has been brought back. The result, described in a bioRxiv preprint, is a model of selected coat traits, not a recreated mammoth.
What the researchers changed
The report, “Multiplex-edited mice recapitulate woolly mammoth hair phenotypes,” describes editing several mouse genes associated with hair morphology and lipid metabolism. Its abstract reports simultaneous edits in as many as seven genes and coats described as curly, textured, and golden-brown. Among the selected loss-of-function targets it lists are Fgf5, Tgm3, and Fam83g. Read the preprint abstract.
The work uses mouse genetic targets to model selected mammoth-associated traits. It does not describe putting a complete mammoth genome into a mouse, and the animals should not be called mammoth-mouse hybrids.
What “woolly mammoth hair” means here
The phrase refers to a resemblance in selected coat characteristics, not proof that the mice have mammoth hair or reproduce a mammoth’s full coat. The preprint abstract supports the reported coat description in the edited mice; it does not establish that their coats are identical to those of woolly mammoths.
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Colossal says the mice were born in October 2024 and describes their hair as wavy, lighter-colored, and up to three times longer than normal. Those birth and length details are company claims from its own explainer, rather than an independent measurement in the cited preprint abstract. See Colossal’s explainer.
What the result does—and does not—show
What it demonstrates
- The researchers report combining genetic changes in a mouse model and producing selected coat traits.
- The study illustrates an approach to testing trait-related edits in a model animal.
What it does not establish
- It does not show that the same edits would work safely in elephants.
- It does not show that an elephant has been turned into a mammoth or that an extinct species has been resurrected.
- It does not establish how closely the mice’s coats match the complete coat of a woolly mammoth.
AP quoted Christopher Preston, a wildlife and environment expert at the University of Montana, saying: “You’re not actually resurrecting anything — you’re not bringing back the ancient past.” That is an expert’s characterization of the limits of the claim, not an experimental finding. AP also quoted Vincent Lynch, a biologist at the University at Buffalo who was not involved in the work, calling the feat “technologically pretty cool.” Colossal chief scientist Beth Shapiro described the combination of variations this way: “we put them all together in a single mouse.” Read AP’s report and expert comments.
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How to read the evidence
The report appeared on bioRxiv in March 2025 and was revised in October 2025. The record identifies it as a preprint, not a peer-reviewed journal article; its authors disclose company affiliations and a patent application. Check the October 2025 version record. AP reported on March 4, 2025 that the results had not then been published in a journal or independently vetted. That statement describes the status at the time of AP’s report; the later bioRxiv version record still labels the work a preprint.
The distinction matters: the reported mouse traits are evidence about the edited mouse model. They are not independent confirmation of mammoth-like biology in elephants, nor evidence of successful de-extinction.
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