The live debate over Tully’s monster may be over

With the help of modern 3D scans, the battle can now be over, they write Research article in the journal Paleontology.

There are no signs of bone tissue

The scientific name for a prehistoric animal is Tullimonstrum gregariumAnd she lived in the sea 300 million years ago.

The aquatic creature was about 15 cm long and had an elongated body with squid-like fins in the tail. The eyes protrude from the head on stalks straight to the sides.

The main distinguishing feature of the animal is a long, slender proboscis that ends either in a mouth with teeth, or in a claw.

The animal’s unique appearance and the lack of both bone findings and evidence of a cartilaginous skeleton in the fossil made the creature difficult to capture.

Many researchers considered the Tully Monster to have structures reminiscent of jawless marine vertebrates with cartilaginous skeletons, such as neon eyes. Others believe that there is insufficient evidence for such a claim.

3D scanning provides answers

Japanese researchers say so now monster tully It was an invertebrate animal.

The group collected and studied 150 fossils of the Tully monster and 70 fossils of other animals at Mazon Creek for comparison.

The fossil was analyzed using high-resolution 3D laser scanning and X-ray computed tomography.

The researchers looked for features in common with vertebrates, including so-called myometriids, layers of skeletal muscle tissue, a trilobite brain, cartilage and fin rays.

The researchers found no such features. The brain, gill sacs, cartilage and fin rays were completely missing. The “teeth” in the proboscis were very different from those of the neon eyes, with which it was compared.

Now that researchers have established that Tully’s monster was an invertebrate, it raises new questions, for example what kind of invertebrate it was.

Were they more like vertebrate-like invertebrates like pikes, or worms and snails?