Burpee Museum Pictures

Well, you guys have heard me talk on and on about Burpee Museum, when I realized, I've never shown any pictures of the place! This is a crime, I tell you! The Burpee Museum of Natural History has quite a bit of exhibits, focusing on Native Americans, native animals, geology, etc, but we'll be focusing on the more prehistoric side of Burpee, with Paleozoic creatures, Hell Creek dinosaurs, with some Morrison Formation thrown in.

The Columbian mammoth at the entrance never fails to amaze with its tremendous size. Hard to imagine the Songhua River mammoth is even bigger when you're looking at it.

Arthropleura at the Mazon Creek Coal Forest exhibition. An artificial thunderstorm can be heard at times.

This is Jane, the pride of Rockford, earning her the nickname "Jane the Rockford T. rex". She's seen rushing a Thescelosaurus in her exhibit.

Another view of Jane.

The replica skeleton of an adult T. rex is also in the room. While you hear about its tremendous size in every dinosaur book ever, you can really only appreciate it up close. And when things like Spinosaurus and Giganotosaurus got bigger, you know we're lucky they went extinct.

Tyler Keillor's awesome Jane sculpture eating a camera flash. Nom nom nom.

A Quetzalcoatlus with a relatively small wingspan (as is it Q. sp, and not Q. nothropi) flies overhead.

Arctodus simus and grizzly bear skull (I think) on the temporary Ice Age exhibition. The same room held a temporary African dinosaurs exhibition (with Baryonyx tenerensis, Afrovenator, Deltadromeus, Jobaria, etc) on display last year.

A sculpture of Castoroides in the Ice Age exhibit.

A look at a juvenile Triceratops skull in the basement.

Homer the juvenile Triceratops skull.

A running Pachycephalosaurus. This isn't the best quality, and I'll show a better picture from my Paleofest visit (this visit was quite a few months ago).

Champsosaurus, the most kickin' awesome crocodile-niche animal from Hell Creek.

Back at the entrance from the 2nd level; Pterygotus, a giant trilobite, and some other Paleozoic invertebrates.

Meganeura on a log. You notice something new every time you visit the forest.

Eryops.

Some Devonian amphibian I forgot the name of.

Dunkleosteus, one of the most awesome fish, and most awesome creatures to exist. My dad said he wants one of these in our house.