Colossal Biosciences may one day be mocked by tabloids as a “COLOSSAL Mistake” after one of their bioengineered sabretooth tigers rampages through Central Park. The last

time I wrote about the de-extinction company, they were claiming to have mapped a significant portion of the extinct Tasmanian Tiger’s genome. Their newest announcement is a

little more tangible. They played God and created woolly mice—mice with woolly mammoth DNA that makes them fuzzy, adorable abominations. Genetically speaking, these

genetically modified mice are still mice. They just have fur coats that offer a rough idea of what a woolly mammoth’s fur looked like. And apparently, what it looked like was an

orange tabby cat after a bath. This delightful genetic freak brings Colossal one step closer to its goal of one day resurrecting the long-extinct woolly mammoth. Videos by VICE

Why? Because they can, and because, I guess, not a single one of them has watched Jurassic Park, or has even heard of it, and if you try to bring it up, they plug their ears and

hum. The company’s researchers made these genetic modifications by first identifying genetic variations between extinct woolly mammoths and their closest living relative, the

Asian elephant. They narrowed it down to 10 variants, like hair thickness, length, texture, and even body fat, that correspond to DNA variants in lab mice. Then the team got to

work making genetic edits to seven mouse genes. If you work in the field of genetics and you want to peer review their work, too bad. So far, Colossal has not published a paper

detailing its research, and it has not yet been peer-reviewed. All of this is a small but important step toward the company’s ultimate goal of re-creating the woolly mammoth. But

it won’t do so in the way you’re imagining. It’s not going to exactly be like Jurassic Park where they’re going to toss some DNA into a bunch of laboratory equipment and then out

comes a one-to-one re-creation of a Tyrannosaurus rex. By 2028, Colossal wants to create approximations of the woolly mammoth using Asian elephants..