Dinos Destroyed

So I'm really into dinosaurs right now. The museum that I work at has an animatronic dinosaur exhibit right now, and everyday when I go into work I feel like I'm in Jurassic Park. No joke, it's awesome. Most people who come in, however, comment on how much cooler it would be if there were actual skeletal displays to go along with our robotic pals. I agree it would be awesome, but also understand how much difficult and expensive that would be.

And now I'm also starting to understand just how difficult it is to even discover prehistoric fossils. The Globe & Mail recently published this article which explains various acts of vandalism towards fossil sites. While this team of paleontologists was out digging in the middle of nowhere (Alberta) they were lucky enough to come across a perfectly preserved skeleton of a Hadrosaur (think Ducky from The Land Before Time; they're similar). So they got all excited - naturally - went home for the night, and when they got back the next day they found that someone actually went to their dig site and smashed the skeleton to pieces!

Words cannot explain how confounded I am that someone would do this.

How did anyone find out about their discovery when it hadn't even been officially announced? What made them think it would be a good idea to go smash it to bits? Why are they stopping people from being able to properly preserve fossils for future generations to enjoy them?

The skeleton was supposed to be the centre-piece of a newly opening museum, but nope, some jerk had to go smash it to pieces. Seriously, who does that?! Were they insanely religious and didn't want people knowing the earth is millions of years old? Were they an employee of another museum that wanted to see their competition fail? Were they a fellow paleontologist who was jealous of their friend's discovery? It doesn't even matter who they were, what they did was disgusting and wrong.

The past is just as important as the present, but if people keep destroying valuable objects such as this, there will be nothing left for us to learn about. Paleontology is already under-valued and under-funded, and actions such as this only make the situation worse. People need to stop being so stupidly inconsiderate and allow the past to prosper throughout the present.

Plus, dinosaurs are just plain awesome, and everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy them.