Burpee using fish to catch people
Speaking of old, the word takes on a new meaning for casual museumgoers with the introduction of Dunk, a ferocious, gigantic, armored fish that lived 360 million years ago.
Next to him, <span class="highlight">Burpee</span>'s star dinosaur, the teenage T. rex named Jane, is a contemporary. She didn't come along until 300 million years after the Dunkleosteus, which once swam in the great seas that covered much of North America.
<p style="font-weight: bold;">Head as headliner
Dunk, a cast of the skull of a Dunkleosteus, headlines <span class="highlight">Burpee</span>'s celebration. Other new things to see are a collection of American Indian arrowheads, spear points and tools that date back 12,000 years and were found in central Illinois, and the work of Erica Lyn Huppe, Portage, Wis., who has done sketches and paintings of Jane and other <span class="highlight">Burpee</span> exhibits.
<span class="highlight">Burpee</span> also brought out of storage some of the exhibits that once dominated the museum, a 14-foot American crocodile, polar bear, lion and, even, the shrunken head that, although thought to be a fake, is still a major draw.
<p style="font-weight: bold;">The lineup
Following are synopses of the new and old exhibits, including those brought out last weekend to celebrate the museum's 65th birthday.
Dunk: The Dunkleosteus skull owes his new home in <span class="highlight">Burpee</span> to Jane. The museum traded a cast of her skeleton to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for the cast of Dunk, who was uncovered in the Cleveland area. It seems like a fair trade, since both Jane and Dunk were among the most fearsome creatures of their times. Dunk's bite, said <span class="highlight">Burpee</span> collections manager Scott Williams, "was the strongest bite of any fish, living or dead." The armored fish, thought to have been 25 feet long, snagged his food with sharpened bony plates that served as teeth. You'll only see Dunk's skull because pieces of his torso and tail have never been found. "Whether he looked like a shark or giant tadpole, we don't know," said Mike Henderson, <span class="highlight">Burpee</span>'s director of earth sciences.
American Indian points: The set of 100 arrowheads, drills, spear points, hand axes and other tools was donated to <span class="highlight">Burpee</span> by Herb Page of Rockford. His great-grandfather, Arron Keagy, discovered them on his farm near Litchfield, about 50 miles south of Springfield, in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some of the pieces go back 12,000 years; others are just 400 years old. The fact they were all found near Litchfield shows that it was a good place to live, temporarily or permanently, for generations of American Indians, said Williams. A close look at the points shows how they developed into stronger and sharper tools over the period.
Art: Huppe, a graduate of the Milwaukee Institute of Art, has done sketches and paintings of <span class="highlight">Burpee</span> exhibits and activities. Among her pieces on display are pictures of Jane, Montana Badlands landscapes and some of the extinct birds at <span class="highlight">Burpee</span>, including the Carolina parakeet and the passenger pigeon.
<span class="highlight">Burpee</span>, which gained international acclaim when it discovered Jane's skeleton in Montana, opened in May 1942 as a Works Progress Administration project. Along with the adjacent Discovery Center children's museum, <span class="highlight">Burpee</span> is engaged in a $10 million fund drive to expand and build a large space for traveling exhibits. For details, log on to connectingourfuture.com.
<p style="font-style: italic;">Staff writer Geri Nikolai can be reached at 815-987-1337 or gnikolai@rrstar.com.