Enigma of the 300-Million-Year-Old 'Tully monster' Solved

The first Tully Monster fossil was discovered in 1958 by amateur fossil hunter Francis Tully , hence its name , since then many more have been found but the discovery has left scientists scratching their heads ever since.
Now a Yale-led team of paleontologists has used new techniques to re-examine the enigmatic fossils to reveal the truth behind the Tully monster.


Turns out the Tully Monster was an early fish that evolution long left behind , it was about a foot long , had its eyes either side of its body supported by a rigid bar and it breathed using gills , the most striking part of the animal was its mouth featuring many teeth at the end of a long narrow trunk.

The researchers concluded that the Tully Monster had gills and a notochord, which functioned as a rudimentary spinal cord. Neither feature had been identified in the animal previously. "It's so different from its modern relatives that we don't know much about how it lived," McCoy said. "It has big eyes and lots of teeth, so it was probably a predator."
www.sciencedaily.com...

I get the feeling the Tully monster may have been a forerunner of the squid but that's just my impression from looking at the artists impressions.

It seems strange that the eyes were "left behind" on the body. It would seem more logical at first to place them next to the snapper. But if it fed on small fish inside crevices, having an eye bitten off wouldn't be practical.

Squids and cuttlefish have their internal organs behind the eyes and the mouth just below. A good number of tentacles and a couple of spear tentacles allow for hunting. But they also have the ability to control the texture and color patterns of their bodies.

a reply to: gortex

What very odd and fascinating physical features. Thank you for sharing!

What was the enigma?

It turned out to be a relative of the lamprey.

originally posted by: PhoenixOD
What was the enigma?

For decades, the Tully Monster has been one of the great fossil enigmas: It was discovered in 1958, first described scientifically in 1966, yet never definitively identified even to the level of phylum (that is, to one of the major groups of animals).

Nobody knew what it was , just that it was a something.