Unveiling the Enigmatic Tully Monster: New Revelations

Using 3D imaging technology, a team of researchers in Japan has found that the Tully monster, a soft-bodied marine animal that lived 300 million years ago, was not a vertebrate, as previously hypothesized. The team studied more than 150 fossilized Tully monsters and other varied animal fossils from Mazon Creek, Illinois, and found that the Tully monster had segmentation in its head region that extended from its body, a characteristic not known in any vertebrate lineage. The next step is to determine what group of organisms it does belong to, possibly a nonvertebrate chordate or some sort of protostome.