Okay, then why did the Smithsonian hire this "undistinguished" biologist in the first place? Keep in mind that they have their choice of most of the top researchers in the world, they obviously thought he was worth hiring then.
"He did post-doctoral work between 1999 and 2001 at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution and in 2001 became an unpaid research associate there.[1]"-from that same wiki article on him.
Working without pay is not being "hired". He did his post-doc'ing there, and then was kept around without pay, probably as a charity gesture till they could unload him on somebody else. I have seen a load of such situations.