Alberta Just Named A Dinosaur 'Dr. Deeno Hinshaw' After Their Beloved Top Doctor
Everyone loves Alberta's provincial health officer, but this is an honour on another level. The University of Alberta just named their famed dinosaur skeleton "Dr. Deeno Hinshaw" after the top doctor. What's more, the dino's namesake graduated from that same university.
The University of Alberta (UofA) Palaeontological Society started a contest to name the enormous plesiosaur skeleton in the main science building.
Started in early April, they got over 200 name suggestions and 600 votes before finally honing onto, objectively, the greatest name of them all.
The human namesake of the dino, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, is the chief medical officer of Alberta and the face of the fight against COVID-19 in the province.
She's been praised for her calm and informative news updates, which thousands have tuned into every day since the start of the outbreak.
Hinshaw has been honoured in murals and specialty T-shirts, but this may be the greatest honour yet: to be named after a 30-foot-long cast of a plesiosaur from the Cretaceous period.
The giant skeleton — which is technically a marine reptile, not a dinosaur — has long been a beloved fixture of the Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science. Now that it's officially named, it can finally achieve its true potential.
Hinshaw — the human, that is — graduated from UofA herself in 2008, earning her masters in public health and preventive medicine from the department of medicine. On top of being Alberta's top doc, she also works as an associate clinical professor with the university.
Hinshaw the plesiosaur is still finishing her residency at UofA, but she hopes to live up to her namesake one day.
Through the thick of the pandemic, Hinshaw has led her province with patience, calm, and science. She oversaw the declaration of a public health emergency, and stayed stoic when anouncing gut-wrenching numbers of infections and casualties of the virus.
Thousands of Albertans recognize her for her efforts, and she's practically become a household name.
I literally could not be happier that the CCIS plesiosaur is named Dr Deeno Hinshaw— Hannah Newbury (@Hannah Newbury) 1587164376.0
There might be nothing more Albertan than naming a dino after their in-house health care icon. After all, Alberta is the dinosaur centre of Canada, home to tons of new discoveries.
There's no higher honour.
