Has the mystery of the “Tully Monster” been solved after almost 70 years? ● Why primate evolution needs to be rethought ● A plastic island in the Pacific Ocean has grown so much it has its own biosystem

Has the mystery of the “Tully Monster” been solved after almost 70 years?

In 1955, an amateur paleontologist named Francis Tully discovered the fossil remains of an animal so strange that even today it cannot be fully explained in the Mason Creek Lagerstette parking lot in Illinois, USA. This strange creature was called the “Tully monster”, and since then hundreds of fossils have been discovered in one place in the United States.

With a maximum length of 35 centimeters, the animal, which lived about 300 million years ago, had a body similar to a cuttlefish. So far nothing strange. The difference is that Tullimonstrum gregarium, as it was christened, had two eyes protruding to the side, and instead of a mouth opening, it had a trunk-like organ, tipped with what could be defined as a mouth.

Since no traces of solid structures (bones, shells, teeth, etc.) were found on the body, Tullimonstrum was considered an invertebrate, but this classification was not easy. In fact, since its discovery, no research has been able to explain the taxonomic position of life or provide a clear description of its organism.

The news, however, comes from a group of Japanese researchers from the universities of Tokyo and Nagoya, who together claim to have solved at least one of the mysteries surrounding Tullimonstrum gregarium. In a study published in the journal Paleontology, Japanese scientists say they have analyzed more than 150 fossils of Tullimonstrum, more than 70 animals found in the same context as them, but for the first time they managed to create a 3D map of the environment in which they lived and in which they petrified

Based on this data, the study authors say the animal shows no evidence that it was a vertebrate, as noted in another study published in Nature in 2016. The most important argument was that the animal showed segmentations in the head region (some of which had not been observed before) that extended into the body, a feature not found in any modern or extinct vertebrate.

Despite this, Japanese researchers admit that their discovery is only a small step in explaining the strangeness of the animal. Its taxonomic classification remains a problem that cannot be solved with modern fossils or modern technology alone. It’s possible, say the Japanese, that Tullimonstrum was a species of snail with radically altered morphology from what we know today. But even this statement must be proven somehow.

Why primate evolution needs to be rethought

In the more than 150 years since people began studying the evolution of the human species and, by extension, primates, there has been one idea that has never changed. This idea held that at the time of the first primates (about 21 million years ago) Africa was a continent covered with vast forests from coast to coast, and that this was an ideal environment that allowed the evolution of our ancestors to remove

Later, about 10 million years ago, as a result of climate changes that affected Africa, part of these forests disappeared, and savannas took their place. It was a change with far-reaching consequences, because in the new environment, the first hominins to set foot on the savanna developed the defining skill of bipedal walking. The problem was that this whole scenario was based more on anecdotal evidence than hard evidence.

Based on this idea, an international team of researchers first analyzed the famous African site that provides one of the oldest evidences of the existence of primates, the Moroto site in Uganda. As I already said, fossils of a primitive primate were found there, which was named Morotopithecus. The strange thing was that Morotopithecus had the skeleton of an animal adapted to life in trees, but its teeth were not at all adapted to eating wild fruits.

The strangeness is explained by the analysis of pollen and carbon isotopes present at the sediment level. And the surprise was that Morotopithecus did not live in forests, as was believed. Its environment in Uganda 21 million years ago was fairly semi-forested, dominated by tropical grasses. This is exactly what was thought to be 10 million years ago, not 21 million years ago.

Using the same methods, the researchers analyzed eight other sites in Uganda and Kenya, and the results were surprising. The plant life at the Moroto site was not special. Rather, it was widespread at that time.

This may not seem like much, but in the world of paleontologists and paleobiologists, it represents a major paradigm shift. Not something that explains the primate evolutionary episode, but at least another step from which to start future research.

A plastic island in the Pacific Ocean has grown so much that it has its own biosystem

A team of researchers from the Smithsonian Center for Environmental Studies recently announced a surprising discovery in the journal Nature Ecology&Evolution. In particular, the large island of plastic in the Pacific Ocean is not only a major factor in pollution. This was already known. More recently, it has been discovered that the island attracts creatures that would not normally live in such an area.

These are invertebrate species that get there with plastic waste and live for years in a completely new environment for them. For example, hundreds of species of invertebrates that were washed into the sea by the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 were found six years later on the shores of North America and Hawaii.

This is a discovery with far-reaching consequences, since it was thought that the invertebrates in question could not exist for so long outside their environment. Based on this idea, American researchers also turned their attention to the aforementioned plastic island, located thousands of kilometers from any land area. Thus, on a large plastic island, crustaceans, sea anemones and other species characteristic of coastal areas were discovered. And not only were they moved there, they actually reproduced and thrived in their new environment.

It seems encouraging news that some life can survive even in the most polluted areas of the globe. Yes, at first glance. However, experts are concerned that all these species will be able to reach completely new coastal areas. And there, their impact as invasive species can be devastating.

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