It was guaranteed that Tullymonster was not a vertebrate. In this respect informs University of Tokyo.
The Tullimonster is a creature about 15 centimeters long that was discovered in the second half of the 20th century and has puzzled scientists with its strange anatomy. Although more than 100 fossils have been found, paleontologists have not been able to classify it and place it in a specific place on the evolutionary tree. Tullimonster’s body was first discovered at the Mason Creek Paleontological Site in Illinois, where it was “soft-bodied” yet pressed into old soft silt. In 2016, a group of scientists in the USA suggested that the tulip monster is a vertebrate.
Now Tomoyuki Mikami and his colleagues have decided to test this theory. To do this, they examined more than 150 tulip monster fossils and more than 70 different fossils from Mason Creek, using a laser scanner to create an accurate 3D model. At the same time, the equipment marked with a special color the places of concentration of small irregularities. To analyze the structure of the hose, the authors used computed tomography.
As a result, it turned out that the signs that make it possible to identify the tulip monster as a vertebrate do not actually correspond to those of vertebrates. “The most important point is that the tulip monster has segmentation in the head region that stands out from the body. This character does not correspond to any known vertebrate lineage,” the authors summarize.
Now scientists need to figure out whether it’s a scalpel-like invertebrate chordate or an unusual protostomy – this group includes worms and mollusks.
Previously, biologists confirmed that moths have “tails.” work as bait for bats.