A shocking event unfolded recently within NROM, following the nation's first ever cyber attack which targeted the country's largest natural history museum; Paleontological Museum of Macedonia. Following the introduction of 2 new complete fossil displays within the museum, several hidden and restricted files were suddenly pulled from the establishment's secure underground lab computers. Fortunately, nothing too major was leaked to the public, aside from a few eyebrow raising projects that question the country's ethical practices on animals. One of which being a long running project, titled the "Experisaur Project" which involves genetic reverse engineering of extant bird species, presumably with the intention of genetically rescuing extinct species of birds, such as dinosaurs and ancient Holocene species, and even recently extinct species.
The project listed a handful of animals that Paleontologists and Geneticists are trying to genetically reintroduce to the world using the advanced 500 million dollar laboratory deep underground, underneath the museum.
This list included, but is not limited to:
Kauaʻi ʻōʻō
Giant Moa
Haast's Eagle
Velociraptor
Argentavis
Dodo
Deinonychus
Paraxenisaurus
Beipiaosaurus
Passenger Pigeon
Kelenken
Evident from the short list the leakers managed to pull, which reportedly wasn't even 10% of the total avian species listed, the government is attempting to resurrect several species of Dinosaur and extinct Holocene birds using Genetic Engineering, more specifically utilizing a tool called CRISPR.
Scientists have used a plethora of methods for genetic rescue of extinct species. One of which being CRISPR to cut and paste genes of different organisms into another's genome. Doing this to a genetic relative of an extinct species can end up recreating said extinct species, which works well with recently extinct animals such as the Dodo and Kauaʻi ʻōʻō. However for the slightly older specimens such as Dinosaurs, including Velociraptor and Deinonychus, Geneticists are working to reverse engineer the bird during its postmorphogenetic stage, which is an embryonic stage of the bird while it is still in the egg. By blocking, restricting, or promoting certain hormones, the bird will be unable to develop its modern features and will opt for suppressed genes and proteins to transcribe once again, which will theoretically force the bird to grow a snout with teeth instead of a beak, for example.
Scientists working under the Experisaur project have seen great success while testing on a chicken. By suppressing the IHH gene within the chicken's genome, the bird developed a Tibia and Fibula of equal lengths, much like that of the prehistoric dinosaurs that came before it. They have also successfully recreated a snout with teeth on a chicken embryo that was later destroyed over ethical concerns.
The image below shows a leaked X-Ray of a Chicken skull normally, then a chicken skull after undergoing the Genetic reverse engineering, then a chicken skull with a fully developed snout. Here you can see the entire facial structure of the Chicken has reverted to that of its ancient dromaeosaur ancestors, proving the theory that birds are direct descendants of the Avian dinosaurs.
The National Newsletter Bulletin of Macedonia (NNBM) have opted not to include graphic embryonic images of the genetic testing in curtesy of our more sensitive readers.
At this current moment, the government have not spoken about the recent leak, and King Karusa does not even seem concerned, as he openly dared any tech savvy Macedonians to try and pull this exact information out, back when the Museum first opened. His words were printed and recorded in history in a previous newsletter we have published.
Furthermore, Zoologists and Paleontologists conducted live testing related to the reverse engineering program, by molding prosthetic tails resembling dromaeosaur tails in function, and attached them to the rear ends of live adult chickens, to observe their reaction to having a tail.
Proving the null-hypothesis that the Zoologists wrote wrong, the Chickens immediately adapted to the added weight, seeming to "remember" that they once had tails for over 100 million years, and the subject began walking as if it were an ancient raptor once more. This has lead Geneticists to open a new study in regards to potential genetic memory within birds.
Here is pulled footage of a Chicken walking like a dinosaur, acting as if it had a tail its entire life after getting one for the first time.
We are just as puzzled and impressed as you might be, and best believe the scientists were even more so. The footage will be available in our digital bulletin, however newspaper copies will receive a still image of the bird with its prosthetic tail.
Currently, the scientists have achieved great success with the legs and beaks of the bird, being able to successfully draw out their dinosaur genes in those respective areas. However the tail is a tricky genetic pickle, as even though the birds remember how to use one, their genome has completely dropped tails from their DNA. Meaning in order to grow fleshy tails once more, instead of feather plumage, they will need to paste a tail-transcribing gene from another organism, into the bird's genome via CRISPR.
For legal reasons, that is all we are able to reveal. For now, let's welcome the newest arrivals to the Paleontological museum of Macedonia!
The first dromaeosaur exhibit introduced to the museum, the Deinonychus! People around the world may recognize this dinosaur as the raptor from Jurassic Park, but may be confused as to why it's not called Velociraptor! Well readers, you'd be surprised to know that the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park are actually Deinonychus, just with a different name! That's right. This dinosaur inspired the iconic bird brained villain, but is equally as impressive in person than in the movies! The Deinonychus could grow up to 3.4 meters long, and lived during the early Cretaceous period of North America. The total duration of their reign is not known to the T, but a broad estimate puts them existing between 145 million years ago, to 99 million years ago. Although it's likely that 120 mya - 100 mya is more accurate. Regardless, this guy was successful for a very long time! We don't know how Deinonychus went extinct, most likely selection pressures from the environment which larger raptors that came after it, such as Dakotaraptor, were better suited to handle. From North America, Deinonychus is now viewable ready to see to the public right here in Macedonia! Just please, do not touch the bones. They're real.
Shipped alongside Deinonychus is the Mongolian Ceratopsian, Protoceratops!
This Asian Ceratopsian is famous for a very peculiar and awe inspiring fossil... A Protoceratops fossil was found alongside a Velociraptor fossil, while both animals were engaged in a bloody and brutal battle. The two dinosaurs died simultaneously while fighting, by unknown means. And both were perfectly preserved even up until today. After that particular find, this dinosaur has skyrocketed in popularity. And now, it's available to witness in all its glory, right here in the Paleontological Museum of Macedonia!
The Protoceratops lived between 83 mya - 70 mya. Alongside Velociraptor. And it was roughly 60 cm tall at the shoulders. It grew 1.8 meters in length, and weighed 180 kilograms! Still heavier than all of us!
So come on down and witness the amazing animals, with the addition of these 2 fantastic specimens, the number of viewable dinosaur displays in the museum has grown to 6, and entry is still free!
IN OTHER NEWS! A massive Drug bust occurred in Lake Ohrid, in which an Albanian drug boat was gunned down, killing the crew on board. Tons of illegal street drugs were seized upon boarding the ship, which was towed back to Albania by the Albanian police.
The drug bust happened around 3 am, when an Albanian gunboat housing 4 Albanian mafia gunmen armed with fully loaded AK-47s attempted to cross Lake Ohrid, into the Macedonian city of Ohrid. The illegal boat was intercepted by three Macedonian police patrol boats, and after refusing to surrender, the police immediately opened fire on the boat with NATO issued M4 assault rifles, instantly killing the Albanians on board. The shootout happened too far from shore to scare any tourists or citizens in Ohrid, however pops across the lake were reported by a few beachgoers, which were very likely to be the gunshots which ended 4 Mafia smugglers.
Upon boarding the gunboat, underneath the deck was tons, upon tons of illegal street drugs which were immediately extracted and placed into the police patrol boats, for disposing later on.
Public image of seized Marijuana. Police were adamant that they believed the gunboats were transporting methamphetamines or !@#$, but do not regret disposing of the smugglers. The cannabis was tested for their genetic makeup and cannabinoids present. After being deemed unfit for medicinal purposes, it was properly disposed. NROM continues to have an extremely strict policy on street/hard drugs and King Karusa shows zero signs on backing down or loosening the country's anti-drug policy.
IN OTHER NEWS! Several children have been rescued by the Macedonian police from an illegal Deep Web human trafficking scheme. We do not have permission to share images on the subject matter, but a recent police raid on the Macedonian-Bulgarian border resulted in 2 men shot dead by police and several children rescued from a dark web trafficking operation. The abandoned warehouse which is now set for demolition, was housing a Bulgarian dark web operation which specialized in organ extraction and child trafficking. A coincidental drone surveillance on the border revealed Bulgarian kidnappers and organ traffickers smuggling what looked like a container full of kidnapped children into the warehouse. The footage was then shared to the nearest Anti Terrorism police task force closest to the warehouse. They, alongside a single armoured brigade from the Macedonian Army, sprung into action to rescue the children.
The Macedonian Army set up a perimeter around the warehouse and with a handful of APCs and tanks the brigade had, they blocked off roads and shut down any attempted truck crossing until the situation was dealt with. While a 2 km area around the warehouse was surrounded by the military, heavily armed police stormed the warehouse, flooding the first and second floor in mere seconds, gunning down 2 Bulgarian dark web operators not even a minute after infiltration. Once the warehouse was secure, a basement was discovered during an inch by inch search using drones and sniffer dogs. The basement level was revealed after a sniffer dog went ballistic near the entrance, and over 20 displaced children were extracted from the dark basement, and eventually returned to their families. The children were mostly French, Bulgarian and Spanish, and all of them returned home safely.
That concludes our breaking news as well as additional headlines!
This article was written by Nikolas Zafirovski of the National Newsletter Bulletin of Macedonia.
The NNBM (the National Newsletter Bulletin of Macedonia) is protected under Free Speech laws and is approved by Head of State, King Karusa.
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