Washington may get an official state dinosaur. There’s at least five good (or bad) things about that

Five pros and cons about a proposal in Olympia to designate an official Washington State dinosaur.

1. Pro - The Legislature has nothing very important to do, so it might as well honor a chunk of leg bone from an 80-million-year-old tyrannosaur found on a remote San Juan Island in 2012.

2. Con - The critter likely never lived in present-day Washington. Scientists surmise his remains moved north as a result of geologic activity. So he’s just another !@#$% California transplant.

3. Pro - A fourth grade class in our own Franklin Pierce School District came up with the idea. Those kids are smart, eager and certainly deserve to be associated with a better fossil than Franklin Pierce.

4. Con - Kennewick Man, the famous Paleoamerican skeleton discovered in 1996, will surely feel snubbed. Then again, he’s a mere 9,000 years old.

5. Pro - A dinosaur is one tough hombre. He’d easily win a cage match against Washington’s other official state symbols, including the Olympic marmot, the steelhead trout and the Walla Walla sweet onion.

This story was originally published February 1, 2020 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Washington may get an official state dinosaur. There’s at least five good (or bad) things about that."