Otago

Zoologist Philip Seddon from the University of Otago in New Zealand explained: "They are genetically modified grey wolves".

The company has not cloned a dire wolf, explained paleogeneticist Dr Nic Rawlence, also from Otago University.

Prof Sir Jim Mann, co-director of the Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research Centre, in Otago, New Zealand, said the emphasis was likely to be "on the needs of those who are defined as clinically obese" and the limited funding was "very likely" to be directed towards them.

Co-author Dr Uwe Kaulfuss, of the University of Göttingen in Germany and former postdoctoral fellow in the University of Otago's Department of Geology, discovered the tiny fossils during an excavation at Hindon earlier this year.

Study co-author Emeritus Professor Daphne Lee, of Otago's Department of Geology, says they add to the expanding insect fauna revealed in the maar.