WHILE MUCH OF AMERICA REHASHES the outcome and aftermath of a recent election, voters in Massachusetts have been electing another official. The job description is vague, the duties negligible. The gig is mainly as a figurehead, which is good, because the candidates aren’t particularly revved up about representing their constituents. They demonstrate astonishingly little interest in local government. In fact, they’ve been dead for millions of years.
If Massachusetts Representative Jack Patrick Lewis has anything to say about it, his state will soon become the 13th to appoint an official state dinosaur. Lewis—a lifelong dino nerd who has traveled to several dig sites and brags about seeing every Jurassic Park movie on opening night—hatched the idea while noodling over ways to make paleontology accessible and engaging for his kid’s Cub Scout den. Introducing a bill to name a state dinosaur struck him as a good way to get kids jazzed about both science and the legislative process. It also seemed really fun.
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