Since its discovery in the 1950s, Tullimonstrum - or the ‘Tully Monster’ - has been the subject of a lot of academic controversy.
This strange creature, with the body of a squid, the fins of a cuttlefish, stalked eyes, and a unique, trunk-like appendage (known as a proboscis) tipped with a toothy ‘beak’, has been placed in a number of different groups, from molluscs to vertebrates.
Tullimonstrum lived during the Late Carboniferous (311-306 million years ago) and is known from a trove of fossils uncovered from the famous Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois, US. Despite being represented by hundreds of fossils, its body plan is far from clear - though scientists have reached a consensus on the fact that it’s a bilaterian (meaning it has bilateral symmetry).
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Aside from its position on the tree of life, scientists are unsure how Tullimonstrum fed. It likely had something to do with the ‘beak’ at the end of its proboscis, with some researchers suggesting it used this structure to grasp prey before licking it to death with a long, rugged tongue.
