BY JOSIE JURASSIC

MSUM has become the faceof genetic engineering.

It was early this semester when university employee Shaun Gammond realized his experiment had worked.

Throughout his three years working in the bioengineering department at MSUM, Gammond had been conducting countless scientific trials with the intent of cloning dinosaurs whose DNA had been extracted from ancient crane flies that had been preserved in tree resin. Gammond had grown doubtful it would work.

“Really, I didn’t think it would work out the way it did,” Gammond said. “When I started this job I was on a pretty big sci-fi kick, and I just figured it’d be fun to imitate that film, ‘Mesozoic Park’ or whatever. Turns out mosquito amber is pretty tough to find, but I did find some quality crane fly resin on the internet.”

And it did just fine. Gammond said in only a matter of days the DNA had successfully been used to create a triceratops embryo.

Now, he has successfully bioengineered seven other triceratops and has released them on campus to see how they will interact with students.

“Really, I didn’t think it would work out the way it did,” Gammond said. “When I started this job I was on a pretty big sci-fi kick, and I just figured it’d be fun to imitate that film, ‘Mesozoic Park’ or whatever. Turns out mosquito amber is pretty tough to find, but I did find some quality crane fly resin on the internet.”

And it did just fine. Gammond said in only a matter of days the DNA had successfully been used to create a triceratops embryo.

Now, he has successfully bioengineered seven other triceratops and has released them on campus to see how they will interact with students.

“You know, I’m not completely certain. I mean the school’s getting a lot of recognition now, so that’s great,” he said. “Reflecting, it makes a lot of sense to clone a lot of different things, but I’m having some trouble remembering why I chose dinosaurs.”

Gammond said his next task is to engineer a dragon, so as to increase school spirit.