Tully Monster Has the Last Laugh on Evolution | The Institute for Creation Research

Tully Monster Has the Last Laugh on Evolution

The pre-Flood world was teeming with some pretty amazing animals. Then the Flood came, rapidly burying and entombing trillions of creatures in sediments that lithified into rocks such as shale, limestone, and sandstone.

A fossil of one of the more unusual animals was discovered in Illinois in 1958, a bowling-pin-size creature called Tullimonstrum gregarium or the Tully Monster. Tullimonstrum has a grasping mouth with tiny, sharp teeth on a long neck, a squid-like tail with ventral and dorsal fin lobes, and eyes at the end of long, narrow stalks, or “bar” organs. Looking like a visitor from an alien world, this was a creature with a strange body plan and bizarre appearance!

In terms of Tully Monster’s unique anatomy, it’s much like the comical platypus, which has the combined traits of a mammal, a bird, and a reptile. Just so, at various times the Tully Monster has been considered an arthropod, a snail without a shell, and a jawless fish.

Evolutionary dating alleges it to be 300 to 307 million years old. The body plan is so strange that zoologists aren’t even sure whether it’s a vertebrate or an invertebrate. Recently, some scientists decided they’d found the answer.

Now, after decades of studies, each with a different take on how to define the weird aquatic creature, the Tully monster has been decoded: It’s a vertebrate, meaning it had a backbone, a new study finds.1

But after analyzing the creature’s unique eye anatomy using “a type of particle accelerator called a synchrotron radiation lightsource,” other zoologists aren’t convinced of that.

We also found that Tully’s eyes contain [a] different type of copper to that found in vertebrate eyes. But the copper also wasn’t identical to that in the invertebrates we studied. So, while our work adds weight to the idea that Tully is not a vertebrate, it doesn’t clearly identify it as an invertebrate either.2

Another group of scientists conducted an investigation by shooting a laser at the Tullimonstrum fossil in a process called Raman microspectroscopy, which is used to measure chemical bonds in carbon-based (organic) compounds.

The work showed evidence of the types of proteins and keratins representative of vertebrates. [The researchers] suggest their findings provide strong evidence that the Tully monster was a vertebrate, though they acknowledge that more work is required to make a final confirmation.3

Whether this creature was a vertebrate or an invertebrate, evolutionists are working with organic compounds that, according to long evolutionary ages, should no longer be there to study at all. Actual organic compounds lasting 300 million years? Decay rates tell us this is impossible.4 The soft tissues of animals (including dinosaurs) and organic material found in the fossil record5—supposedly millions of years old—is simply not predicted by evolution theory.

Indeed, Tully Monster has no evolutionary explanation. According to the prestigious journal Nature, “Its phylogenetic [evolutionary] position has remained uncertain.”6 It’s just one more controversial creature unearthed from the pre-Flood world destroyed just thousands of years ago that defies a naturalistic explanation. The infinite ingenuity (and perhaps even sense of humor) of our Creator, however, offers a perfect explanation.

References

  1. Geggel, L. Ancient ‘Tully Monster’ was a vertebrate, not a spineless blob, study claims. LiveScience. Published on livescience.com May 4, 2020, accessed May 8, 2020.
  2. Rogers, C. The mysterious ‘Tully Monster’ fossil just got more mysterious. The Conversation. Posted on theconversation.com November 11, 2019, accessed May 8, 2020.
  3. Yirka, B. Chemical analysis of Tully monster suggests it was a vertebrate. PhysOrg. Posted phys.org May 7, 2020, accessed May 8, 2020.
  4. Sherwin, F. More Exceptional Preservation of Organic Material. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org August 23, 2018, accessed May 1, 2020.
  5. Thomas, B. Published Reports of Original Soft Tissue Fossils. Posted on ICR.org September 17, 2018, accessed May 1, 2020.
  6. McCoy, V. E. et al. 2016. The ‘Tully Monster’ is a vertebrate. Nature. 532 (7600): 496-499.

* Mr. Sherwin is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his M.A. in zoology from the University of Northern Colorado.

Cite this article: Frank Sherwin, D.Sc. (Hon.). 2020. Tully Monster Has the Last Laugh on Evolution. Acts & Facts. 49 (7).

The Latest
NEWS
Creation's Easter Message
While many Christians still consider the creation doctrine a fringe issue, a proper understanding of the Christian message finds creation at its core...

NEWS
ICR Veteran Don Barber Retires
Don Barber   After 34 years with the Institute for Creation Research, Director of Enterprise Technology Don Barber will retire...

CREATION.LIVE PODCAST
The Sanctity of Life | Creation.Live Podcast: Episode 23
Abortion is a big issue culturally and in the church. How can believers love our neighbors and act as the hands and feet of Christ when it comes...

NEWS
Plant Receptors Are Designed to Control Immunity and Development
God has designed plants to continuously track their environment.1 They do so with specially designed detectors (also called receptors) on...

CREATION PODCAST
Homo Naledi: The Lies Behind Evolution's Rising Star | The Creation...
Homo naledi, once evolution's 'rising star,' was considered to be a prime example of human evolution. But is it really proof? Or...

NEWS
A Subsurface Ocean on Mimas?
Scientists have analyzed data obtained from the Cassini spacecraft and concluded that irregularities in the orbit of Saturn’s moon Mimas indicate...

NEWS
In Theaters March 20 & 21: The Ark and the Darkness
Is Genesis true? What about Noah’s Flood? How did Noah fit the animals on the ark? Wasn’t it a local flood? Have you asked these questions? Though...

NEWS
Enigmatic Fossil Plants
The pre-Flood world thousands of years ago was unlike the world of today.1 Unfamiliar animals and plants were common, and there were a lot...

NEWS
Surprisingly Colorful Fossil Snail Shells
Finding organic compounds such as flexible dinosaur collagen and complete bone cells1,2 is becoming common, much to the shock and consternation...

NEWS
March 2024 ICR Wallpaper
"He is not here; for He is risen, as He said." (Matthew 28:6 NKJV) ICR March 2024 wallpaper is now available for mobile, tablet,...