A dinosaur fossil specimen valued at $1 million was recently donated to the Creation Museum in Kentucky, the Associated Press reported.
The gift of Michael Peroutka, the Republican nominee for a Maryland city council race, the 30-foot-long Allosaurus fossil was discovered in Colorado. Peroutka reportedly presented the specimen to the Petersburg, Ky., museum over Memorial Day weekend.
The Creation Museum is owned by the Answers in Genesis ministry, which is a proponent of Bible-based scientific theories. While scientists say the dinosaurs died out around 60 million years ago, Creation Museum materials say that the animals perished in a catastrophic flood about 4,300 years ago.
According to museum founder Ken Ham, the Allosaurus exhibit "will help us defend the book of Genesis and expose the scientific problems with evolution," as quoted by the AP.
The Creation Museum and its Allosaurus exhibit have both drawn fire from the scientific community.
The museum "has decided, without doing research, that the dinosaur fossil is evidence of Noah's flood," Daniel Phelps, president of the Kentucky Paleontological Society, said Thursday in a statement provided to the AP.
Answers in Genesis this year began fundraising to build a Noah's Ark theme park in Grant County, Ky.
By mid-February, some $14.4 million in private donations had reportedly been raised to create the Ark Encounter theme park on the selected 800-acre site. The ark replica alone will cost around $24.5 million, while the entire park is expected to have a price tag of more than $120 million.
The project has drawn mixed responses, with local officials calling the ark good news for the Northern Kentucky economy, while critics have objected to the biblical tenets involved.
"We're happy to be the home of the ark," Williamstown Mayor Rick Skinner said, as reported by the Courier-Journal. He noted that the park will likely bring in hundreds of jobs as well as hotels and restaurants to the mostly rural community.
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