Burpee Museum of Natural History

Homer’s Odyssey: From the Badlands to Burpee

Beirut, Lebanon

From the discovery and excavation of the first bones in Montana to the preparation and reconstruction of the fossils in the lab, the new Homer’s Odyssey exhibit at the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Illinois is the product of eight years of work. Since this was the first Triceratops bone bed ever found, the Museum had the opportunity to create an exciting exhibition that sheds light on this hot topic within the scientific community.

Xibitz, along with content developer, Dan Bartlett, was entrusted to develop the permanent exhibit to meet the museum’s objectives of being fun, as well as educational, and scientifically accurate. Xibitz created content that gives visitors glimpses into the biology and ecology of Homer’s day, over 66 million years ago, including a dynamic mount of the Triceratops Homer, a mural depicting life in the Cretaceous period by Paleo artist Michael Skrepnick, and thirteen skulls that demonstrate interspecies evolutionary relationships and species growth from baby to adult.

With the tremendous visual appeal, “Homer’s Odyssey” meets the museum’s goals of providing visitors of multiple age groups and varied learning styles opportunities for hands-on/ minds-on activities including tactile fossil samples and interactive flipbooks.