Tully Monster - weird, extinct, but there are some living animals like it today [5:35]

YouTube ^ | January 14, 2021 | Indoona

[SunkenCiv]

Tully Monster (Tullimonstrum) - is probably the weirdest animal that ever lived- the true story of the Illinois state fossil, how it was found and what it is.

The Tully Monster was found not too far from Chicago, Illinois, in 1955, by fossil hunter Francis Tully. Its soft body was remarkably well preserved in the shale of Mazon Creek, near the coal pits of Braidwood, Illinois. But what is this weird creature? It lived 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous period, the age of ferns and coal, but did it leave any clues of what animals living today it resembles or was it a line of its own that became extinct? 

Tully Monster - weird, extinct, but there are some living animals like it today. | 5:35 
Indoona | 4.54K subscribers | 5,699 views | January 14, 2021

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: carboniferous; chicago; francistully; godsgravesglyphs; illinois; paleontology; tullimonstrum; tullymonster

[SunkenCiv]

 

Tullimonstrum: A Prehistoric Monster with An Unbelievable Shape | 20:08 
ExtinctOre | 2.83K subscribers | 91,346 views | April 27, 2025

• The Ancient Tully Monster Was So Unusual That Scientists Still Don't Know How to Classify It [02/17/2023]
• Mysterious 300-million-year-old 'Tully monster' may not be the creature scientists thought it [tr] [11/12/2019]
• Tully Monster mystery not a closed case, scientists say [02/21/2017]
• Prehistoric peepers give vital clue in solving 300 million year old 'Tully Monster' [04/13/2016]

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullimonstrum#McCoy_et_al._(2020);_Wiemann_et_al._(2022)

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[SunkenCiv]

https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/press/z0508_00286.html

[ansel12]

I would hate to be seated behind it in a movie theater.

[Red Badger]

Probably became the Squid of today.................

[sphinx]

Closely related to modern graboids.

[Doctor Congo]

My guess is that the jaws on a snout is used for grabbing things below the sand/mud. It probably used those stereoscopic eyes to guide the snout into holes, then the mouth part grabs whatever is in there.

[MurrietaMadman]

I knew a guy named Tully back in Dong Ha in ‘68. Nice guy.

[ZOOKER]

[CatHerd]

I was expecting some huge scary thing. But it’s actually kinda cute, especially the way it wiggles its little eyes.

Thanks for posting this.

[LouAvul]

TULLY? EXTINCT? IT’S MY FAVORITE KEURIG COFFEE! WHAT WILL I DO NOW?!

[ridesthemiles]

GOD DID LOTS OF EXPERIMENTING

[21twelve]

I need to look at this later to see how they figured the eyes were like that. I would think that would be soft tissue and not preserved in the fossil.

It is interesting that if God was just experimenting, why don’t we find a bunch of animals with more (or less) than two eyes. Sort of like cameras on cars. One on the back is really handy. Then later on - hey! We should put one in the front too! Then on the sides when turning. I have no idea how many are on a Tesla - but I can almost see them trying out a whole bunch of cameras and then reducing their number as it got too confusing and too much information. (Well - at least for a human operator, that still just has two eyes to look at all of the cameras.)

[dangus]

huh?

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure.

[SunkenCiv]

We think alike.

[CatHerd]

Animals with near 360 degree vision (and other cool vision tricks):

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/amazing-eyes-vision-champions.html

[Red Badger]

That’s scary.....................