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Field Museum Solves The Mystery Of The Illinois Tully Monster

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Scientists say they now believe they know what Illinois' state fossil looked like when it was alive and roaming the area more than 300 million years ago.

"This a really bizarre looking creature," said Scott Lidgard, an associate curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Field Museum of Natural History.

Lidgard has worked at the Field Museum for 30 years, and he said finding out what Tully Monster really looks like has been "revelatory."

"It's been in my house for all these years and now I'm pretty sure I know what this baby is," he said.

Lidgard said he, along with colleagues Yale University, Argonne National Laboratory, and the American Museum of Natural History have determined it is a vertebrate that had an elongated, tubular body; with a long snout that had something like a claw on its end. Its eyes sat on the ends of a horizontal bar that extended out from the top of the body.

The Tully Monster has been a mystery to scientists for decades, until now, after scientists looked at it in many ways, including examining 1,200 of the 1,800 Tully Monster fossils in the Field Museum collection.

"Looking at all these characters – using modern, computerized analytical techniques – we were able to place Tully Monster in a position on the tree of life," Lidgard said.

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Tully Monster is believed to be related to the current lamprey.

The first Tully Monster fossil was found in 1958 by Francis Tully near Mazon Creek southwest of Chicago.

"This is the state fossil of Illinois. It's only found in Illinois. It's only found in a region that's mined for coal about 50 miles southwest of Chicago--Coal City, Braidwood, Morris," Lidgard said.

Lidgard said it's great for Illinois that Tully has been figured out.

"It's WOW! in a big way," he said.

The Field Museum has digitized 1,200 of its collection of 1,800 Tully Monster fossils allowing scientists elsewhere to examine them.

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