====== Tully Monster ====== >//Tullimonstrum,// colloquially known as the Tully Monster, is an extinct genus of soft-bodied bilaterian that lived in shallow tropical coastal waters of muddy estuaries during the Pennsylvanian geological period, about 300 million years ago." Taxonomists cannot yet agree on where it belongs in the animal taxonomy, or even as to whether it's a vertebrate or not. //See:// [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullimonstrum|Wikipedia]] Its fossils are an example of a large group of as yet unidentified remains collectively known as //'probematica'// or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incertae_sedis|Incertae sedis]] (Latin for "of uncertain placement"). //References:// The ‘Tully Monster’ **is a vertebrate**. [[https://www.nature.com/articles/nature16992|Nature]]// //**532**, pages 496–499 The ‘Tully Monster’ **is not a vertebrate**: characters, convergence and taphonomy in Palaeozoic problematic animals. [[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pala.12282|Palaeontology]] Volume 60, Issue 2. **Update Apr. 2023** A new paper describes research which used 3-D scanning tech to compare the structure(s) of 153 fossil specimens : >Our investigation of the resulting comprehensive 3D morphological dataset revealed that structures previously regarded as myomeres, tri-lobed brain, tectal cartilages and fin rays are not comparable with those of vertebrates. These results raise further doubts about its vertebrate affinities, and suggest that //Tullimonstrum// may have been either a non-vertebrate chordate or a protostome. >\\ Source : [[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pala.12646|Palentology, ]]{{:oa_padlock_red.png?16}}[ Paywalled ] Volume 66, Issue 2 ---- Also see: [[content:life_sciences:life_itself:number_of_species|Number of species]]