Davenport’s Putnam Museum Seeks Sponsors for “Animal Armor” Exhibit
Are you in the market to adopt an animal?
If so, the Putnam Museum & Science Center has some deals for you – but they’re not exactly warm and cuddly pets and you won’t be able to take one home.
In preparation for its next major traveling exhibit, “Animal Armor,” the Davenport museum is seeking sponsorships from businesses and individuals on each item, between 50 and 60 skeletons and other displays, from the exhibition company, Gaston Design, Inc.
“It’s open to anyone,” Scott Peake, the Putnam vice president of marketing and membership, said recently, noting he’s doing an e-blast to members on Tuesday, Sept. 2, encouraging them to honor their family or family member with a sponsorship ranging from $500 to $1,000.
A sample sheet seeking sponsors for the upcoming “Animal Armor” exhibit, scheduled at the Putnam Sept. 20, 2025 to Feb. 15, 2026.
Relating to the exhibit theme of protection, the Putnam also is reaching out to organizations connected to the military, insurance, and cybersecurity, he said. “Animal Armor” – scheduled from Sept. 20, 2025 to Feb. 15, 2026 — will happen no matter what, but sponsorships will help defray the costs, Peake said.
When you adopt an armored animal, your name (or the name of someone you want to honor) will appear on a plaque beside your chosen animal in the exhibit. It’s a fun, memorable way to celebrate a loved one or just claim bragging rights as the caretaker of a legendary creature, the Putnam says.
Whether it’s for a child enchanted by prehistoric animals, a grandparent who loves adventure or simply to honor someone special, your sponsorship helps bring these fascinating creatures (and the Putnam’s mission) to life, the museum request says, noting they’re asking for adoptions by September 15th.
This crested porcupine (the largest on Earth) is one of the “Animal Armor” items up for adoption, for $750.
In the exhibit, visitors will be able to learn about the evolution of armor in dinosaurs and prehistoric animals and see larger than life invertebrates from 540 million years ago, armored fish replicas from 380 million years ago – even a full-scale replica of the giant crocodilian Deinosuchus. Matt Lamanna, the lead paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, has said: “The exhibition is a fascinating look at the evolution of armor in animals over the course of nearly 600 million years.”
The Gaston website says of the exhibit:
“Protection versus predation is a continuing competition that has driven evolution for millions of years. From fishes and insects to reptiles and mammals, defensive necessity has resulted in the evolution of armor in almost all groups of animals. Over time they developed armor patterns ranging from simple defensive plates to highly ornate spiny displays. Armor evolution has resulted in some of the most beautiful and bizarre forms in the animal kingdom.
“Animal Armor” features invertebrates, fish, turtles, tortoises, dinosaurs, mammals, shells, and human armor, and some items will direct people to things in the Putnam collection that are related, such as samurai armor and medieval warfare helmets, Peake said.
Adult and juvenile Gastonia skeletons that are part of the “Animal Armor” exhibit.
For a new traveling exhibit, Putnam curator of natural history Chris Chandler was trying to find something related to dinosaurs specifically, since the Putnam has a long-term campaign to secure its own Triceratops skeleton for permanent display.
The skeleton earmarked for the Putnam is currently being excavated at a dig site in remote Lusk, Wyoming. A team of 10 from the museum and the greater community took part in a week-long dig there in late June. That trip uncovered 32 bones, Peake said recently.
The Triceratops fossils will make the Putnam Museum and Science Center the only place in Iowa where visitors can see a full dinosaur skeleton. The museum expects the skeleton to be installed in 2027 (first in the Palmer traveling exhibit gallery) and be a permanent addition to the museum’s over 250,000-item collection.
Since this is literally a massive undertaking, the Putnam is partnering with several local organizations to turn the $320,000 dream into reality. They include Augustana College and the Fryxell Geology Museum, VictoryXR, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, Leap Lab: Ventura County Science Center, Eastern Wyoming Nature Center and local “Jurassic Park” aficionado Colin Parry.
Though there are no Triceratops as part of the “Animal Armor,” there are a variety of dinosaur-like skeletons, including the Deinosuchus — a 35-foot-long crocodilian that lived during the Late Cretaceous period, between 72 million and 83 million years ago. Gaston Design describes it (each item in the sponsor sheets boasts very cool verbiage) with the header, “T. Rex is Afraid of Me”: “Crushing jaws. Spiked back. Big bad gator vibes. At 35 ft. long, I didn’t just survive, I dominated.”
In late June, a Putnam Museum team helped dig for Triceratops bones outside Lusk, Wyo. Pictured are (L-R) Dr. Marcus Eriksen (Dig Leader, Leap Labs), Chris Chandler (Putnam Curator of Natural Sciences), Carlos Guerrero (Common Chord) and Nathan Kerns (Putnam Staff).
During the Putnam’s annual Dino Days event (May 31-June 1, which included a fossil dig), president/CEO Cindy Diehl Yang announced the ambitious plan to bring an adult Triceratops skeleton to the museum (1717 W. 12th St., Davenport) for the benefit of the greater Quad-City community.
“This project feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the museum,” she said. “As I’m relatively new to the Quad Cities, it’s an honor to be a small part of bringing something this epic to this amazing community. This will be the community’s dinosaur, and we will need everyone’s support to bring the dino home!”
The plan now is to reconstruct a complete Triceratops in late 2027, and a Putnam-sponsored group will return to the eastern Wyoming dig site next summer, Peake said.
The site is about an hour north of Lusk, led by Marcus Eriksen, who is building a dinosaur museum for the town, Eastern Wyoming Nature Center. That area is called the Triceratops Beds, where researchers have found the most Triceratops fossils in the world, and most have left the area, Peake said. Eriksen wants “Lusk to become a dinosaur town, have a dinosaur festival and have a museum, have them stay in the community,” he added.
The Putnam Dino Days will move next year to Aug. 15-16, since this year the museum added the new “Putnam Palooza” in May, and they’re hoping to keep that for next year, and Dino Days to close the summer.
Anyone interested in adopting an animal for “Animal Armor” should contact Sydney O’Neal, the Putnam annual campaign director at so’neal@putnam.org or 563-336-7289.
At the late June dig site in eastern Wyoming, Mark Russell Smith (Maestro at QC Symphony Orchestra) is shown with a Triceratops vertebra.
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