"Hitchhiker" ID help please - some kind of worm/fish/slug/pod thing :-p

[taricha]

This "hitchhiker" was found in a creek in Illinois (fossilized) in the 1950s.

It was about a foot long.

It's elongated and flat and shaped like a torpedo.

It has a long "snout", that has teeth at the end of it.

It's also got eyes on the end of long rigid eyestalks.

Here's a pic of it. https://www.scientificamerican.com/...onster-a-fish-a-worm-a-giant-slug-with-fangs/

Please help ID the Tully Monster

 

[JoJosReef]

This "hitchhiker" was found in a creek in Illinois (fossilized) in the 1950s.

It was about a foot long.

It's elongated and flat and shaped like a torpedo.

It has a long "snout", that has teeth at the end of it.

It's also got eyes on the end of long rigid eyestalks.

Here's a pic of it. https://www.scientificamerican.com/...onster-a-fish-a-worm-a-giant-slug-with-fangs/

Please help ID the Tully Monster

Comes off of Florida ocean rock. Reef safe with caution, best left in the sump. Will regulate its own population based on how much you feed.

 

[Cell]

Comes off of Florida ocean rock. Reef safe with caution, best left in the sump. Will regulate its own population based on how much you feed.

Did you read the post at all?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

This "hitchhiker" was found in a creek in Illinois (fossilized) in the 1950s.

It was about a foot long.

It's elongated and flat and shaped like a torpedo.

It has a long "snout", that has teeth at the end of it.

It's also got eyes on the end of long rigid eyestalks.

Here's a pic of it. https://www.scientificamerican.com/...onster-a-fish-a-worm-a-giant-slug-with-fangs/

Please help ID the Tully Monster

Versus flytrap x squid x trilobite?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Did you read the post at all?

I believe that was sarcasm...

 

[Reefing102]

Cuttlefish that wore neck rings and had a bar piercing

 

[Cell]

You never know. Lots of people throw out answers without actually reading the question these days. You are probably right though.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

You never know. Lots of people throw out answers without actually reading the question these days. You are probably right though.

Given the source, I think I am...

 

[taricha]

Reef safe with caution, best left in the sump.

Thanks!
I totally forgot to ask if it was friend or foe?

 

[taricha]

BTW, the article itself is interesting. Even though the fossil is semi-famous for its weirdness, (state fossil of illinois), Scientists have been arguing since the 60s about what kind of thing it actually is. They can't even agree if its a vertebrate or not. Hence the thread title.
They've gone back and forth over the years, looked at structures which they've alternately interpreted as a gut, or a notochord. In 2016, looked at a few different things and argued that it was a primitive cartilaginous fish like a lamprey or hagfish, about the most basic vertebrate possible.
This article was about a new paper that tried to kick the tully monster back to the invertebrates.

"The team concluded that several traits that were linked to vertebrates in previous studies—such as gill pouches, a trilobed brain and fin rays—were either missing from the fossils or were not structurally similar to the traits seen in vertebrates. The researchers also used x-ray microcomputed tomography scans to analyze the clawlike nozzle at the end of the Tully Monster’s fossilized “trunk” and determined that the nozzle’s prickly fangs were not similar to the teeth of modern jawless fish such as lampreys.

According to Mikami, the Tully Monster’s segmentation is another key difference. “I think the most important thing is that we found the segmentation in the head region,” he says. The Tully Monster’s segmentation extends in front of its eyes, an arrangement that is not seen in any vertebrate lineage."

So it might be segmented like a polycheate worm or arthropod or something.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

So it might be segmented like a polycheate worm ...

It's that FIREWORM everyone has been "finding" in their tanks recently! LOL!!

 

[JoJosReef]

He

Given the source, I think I am...

BTW, the article itself is interesting. Even though the fossil is semi-famous for its weirdness, (state fossil of illinois), Scientists have been arguing since the 60s about what kind of thing it actually is. They can't even agree if its a vertebrate or not. Hence the thread title.
They've gone back and forth over the years, looked at structures which they've alternately interpreted as a gut, or a notochord. In 2016, looked at a few different things and argued that it was a primitive cartilaginous fish like a lamprey or hagfish, about the most basic vertebrate possible.
This article was about a new paper that tried to kick the tully monster back to the invertebrates.

"The team concluded that several traits that were linked to vertebrates in previous studies—such as gill pouches, a trilobed brain and fin rays—were either missing from the fossils or were not structurally similar to the traits seen in vertebrates. The researchers also used x-ray microcomputed tomography scans to analyze the clawlike nozzle at the end of the Tully Monster’s fossilized “trunk” and determined that the nozzle’s prickly fangs were not similar to the teeth of modern jawless fish such as lampreys.

According to Mikami, the Tully Monster’s segmentation is another key difference. “I think the most important thing is that we found the segmentation in the head region,” he says. The Tully Monster’s segmentation extends in front of its eyes, an arrangement that is not seen in any vertebrate lineage."

So it might be segmented like a polycheate worm or arthropod or something.

Definitely an interesting read. Still, not something I would want to find while scraping bubble algae in my tank at night!

 

[taricha]

It's that FIREWORM everyone has been "finding" in their tanks recently! LOL!!

"can you get a better picture of its teeth?"