It's kind of a waste of money? Wouldn’t it be better for biologically-inclined scientists pursuing a career in palaeontology to instead switch to the more pressing and equally lucrative field of biological conservation? Alternatively, why should palaeontology be funded at all when clearly all the funding should go to cancer, vaccine and antibiotics research?

Are extinction rates in rugose corals really as high impact to society as medical advances? Who cares what life looked like if we know how it is today? Perhaps palaeontology the subject should stop trying to compete with other science funding altogether and become a humanities subject?