OLYMPIA, WA – Surrounded by the children and grandchildren of her colleagues on Children’s Day, Representative Melanie Morgan (D-Parkland) once again asked the House to pass her bill to designate the Suciasaurus rex as the official dinosaur of Washington State. The bill, HB 1020, passed off the floor by a vote of 88-5.
The partial fossil of a Suciasaurus rex was discovered by two Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture paleontologists in 2012. The dinosaurs are two-legged, meat-eating creatures that include Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus rex, and modern birds. It was found along the shores of Sucia Island State Park in the San Juan Islands.
“The fossil is approximately 80 million years old and is from the Late Cretaceous period. During that time, the rocks that today form Sucia Island were likely further south,” according to the Burke Museum. More information here.
“This is a DINO-mite piece of legislation,” Morgan said on the House floor. “This is really about civic engagement from our youth with their state legislature. I ask you for the third time to bring the Suciasaurus rex out of extinction, and vote yes especially for our guests today, the children.”
Designating the Suciasaurus rex as the official state dinosaur was an idea brought to Morgan by fourth-grade students in Ms. Cole’s class at Elmhurst Elementary in the Franklin Pierce School District. Morgan is a former school board member for the district.
The students researched the dinosaur and how a bill becomes a law. They brought the idea to Morgan, and it has been a priority ever since.
Introduced in late 2019, the bill passed the House floor and committees in 2020 and 2021 but failed to get a hearing in the Senate. Morgan has introduced the bill every year since in hopes of it becoming law. Along with the District of Columbia, 14 states have official dinosaurs.
HB 1020 now heads to the Senate for consideration.
