Tag: tullymonster
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2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #8: A Tully Monster on Pit 11’s Opening Day!
Today is opening day of fossil collecting season at the Mazonia-Braidwood State Park. So, it’s only fitting that the preview for today is a Tully Monster. Here it is… we hope you get out, enjoy some fresh air, and find a Tully today!
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Fossil Friday #304: A Heartwarming Tully Reunion
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #304. Expect this to be a regular feature of the website. We will post fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! For Valentines Day, we have a nice heartwarming Tullymonster reunion…
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Mazon Monday #303: Happy 60th Birthday, Tully Monster!
Happy 60th Birthday to the Tully Monster! Well, actually tomorrow is the day. And, I guess technically it’s really been 307 – 309 million years, but who’s really counting. Eugene Richardson, Jr., who first called it “Mr. Tully’s monster”, described the animal in the paper “Pennsylvanian invertebrates of the Mazon Creek Area, Illinois: the morphology…
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2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #1: Tully Monsters
This is the preview post #1 for the 2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2026 will be held on March 21th and 22nd at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year. All details can be found here.…
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2025 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #23: Tullymonstrum gregarium!
This is the preview post #23 for the 2025 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2025 will be held on March 15th and 16th at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year. All details can be found here.…
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2025 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #2: Tullymonstrum gregarium!
This is the preview post #2 for the 2025 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2025 will be held on March 15th and 16th at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year. All details can be found here.…
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Mazon Monday #233: How the Tully monster became Illinois’ official state fossil
This is Mazon Monday post #233. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. As you probably know, the Tully Monster is the State Fossil of Illinois. It a real fan favorite. Everyone loves the Tully Monster… did you know there are stuffed Tullys you can buy online?!? Last week, the Chicago Tribune…
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2024 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #13!
This is the preview post #13 for the 2024 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2024 will be held on March 16th and 17th at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year. All details can be found here.…
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2024 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #3!
This is the preview post #3 for the 2024 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2024 will be held on March 16th and 17th at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year. All details can be found here.…
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Mazon Monday #199: The Enigmatic Tully Monster (or the Lesser Orm of Mazon Creek)
This is Mazon Monday post #199. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Today, we a have strange, enigmatic tale of the Tully Monster. It’s a tale of wonder…. of wonder why it was written and can this be real? In 1969, the book “The Great Orm of Loch Ness: A Practical…
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Mazon Monday #188: He looks for Tullys in gullies – Andy Hay
This is Mazon Monday post #188. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Tullimonstrum gregarium was first discovered by Francis Tully in the mid-1950s in the legendary Pit 11 fossil locality. It was described by Ralph Johnson and Eugene Richardson Jr. in the article “Pennsylvanian Invertebrates of the Mazon Creek Area, Illinois:…
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Mazon Monday #185: The Naming of the Tully Monster
This is Mazon Monday post #185. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The Tully Monster was named the state fossil in 1989. Unfortunately, this was about two years after Francis Tully, its namesake, had passed away. The following article appeared in the April 1989 edition of the ESCONI newsletter. It was…
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Mazon Monday #179: Mr Tully’s Tullys
This is Mazon Monday post #179. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The Tully Monster was designated Illinois’ State Fossil in 1989. Unfortunately, Francis Tully (yes! an ESCONI member!) didn’t live to see it as he died in 1987. While much is still uncertain, we know quite a bit more about…
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Mazon Monday #148: Tully Monster on PBS Eons
This is Mazon Monday post #148. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. PBS Eons has a nice short video on Facebook about the Tully Monster, which is the State Fossil of Illinois. Note: you do not need to have a Facebook account to watch the embedded video.
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Mazon Monday #136: Is the Tully Monster Really Extinct
This is Mazon Monday post #136. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! Jim Konency wrote this article for the ESCONI newsletter back in May 1997. Jim was president of ESCONI back in the early 1960’s. Here’s a photo of him at a meeting back in the 1960’s. Jim and his wife…
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Mazon Monday #50: The Dancing Worm of Turkana
This is Mazon Monday post #50. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Today, we have a real treat. Dr. Eugene Richardson was the Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology at the Field Museum of Natural History from the 1950s until his death in 1983. He had a huge influence on the research of…
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Mazon Monday #12: Tully: Monster vs Method
This is Mazon Monday post #12. This video by the Field Museum details some of the modern research methods used to study the Tully Monster fossils, and actually many of the other fossils in the FM collection. This research led to the conclusions that you have heard a few years ago… the Tully Monster is…
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Mazon Monday #7: Ancient ‘Tully monster’ was a vertebrate, not a spineless blob, study claims
This is Mazon Monday post #7. This is about one of the favorite Mazon animals, the Tully monster. Phys.org has an article about some new research about the Tully Monster. The Tully Monster was first discovered by Francis Tully in 1955. He was fossil hunting in Pit 11 of the old Peabody Coal Company’s strip…
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Mazon Monday #1: The Tully Monster
The Tully Monster, or Tullimonstrum gregarium, has long been one of the most popular Mazon Creek fossil specimens. The reasons are unclear… maybe it’s the strange shape of the animal, or that it’s the State Fossil of Illinois, or the questions and controversy as to what type of animal it is. It is fairly rare,…
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ScienceMag: 300-million-year-old ‘Tully Monster’ may not be the creature scientists thought it was
Science Magazine has a story about the Tully Monster. A paper, which appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, calls into question whether Tullymonstrum is a vertebrate. The new research found melanosomes in extant invertebrate eyes (Octopus and Squid). That was a key part of the previous argument as it was widely believed…
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U-Haul Tully Monster
Just in case you’ve never seen it on their trucks and trailers, U-Haul has the Tully Monster graphic on their website. There’s also a small animation with sound. Click “Learn More“, there’s a bunch of information about our State Fossi. Enjoy!
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PBS Eons: The Tully Monster & Other Problematic Creatures
This episode of PBS Eons is about our very own state fossil… the Tully Monster! It’s about 6 months old and mentions some of the recent research. It even explains some some phylogeny around the whole mystery of where Tullymonstrum belongs in the tree of life.
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The Field Museum’s Response to the Recent Tully Monster Paper
The Field Museum blog has a reply to the recent Tully Monster paper that disagreed with the determination of the Tully Monster as a vertebrate, which appeared in a couple papers published last year in Nature. Last year, two papers in the journal Nature sought to resolve what group of animals Tully Monster fossils belong…
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‘Tully monster’ mystery is far from solved, group argues
Phys.org has a story about our friend the Tullymonster. Recall that last year there was quite a bit of discussion about the classification of the Illinois State Fossil. Two independent groups of scientist published paper last Spring, one claiming that it was a vertebrate and one even claimed it to be a primitive lamprey. Now…
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Tully Monster Presentation: Waubonsee Community College on September 22nd, 2016
Here is a presentation which is likely to be of interest to ESCONI members. David Voorhees, an Associate Professor in geology at Waubonsee Community College (and our January 2017 General Meeting speaker) organizes a series of talks called “Asset Earth“. The talk is scheduled for September 22nd, 2016. Coincidentally, the September talk is on the…
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September 2106 General Meeting Title Change: Paul Mayer “How Digitization Helped Tame the Tully Monster”
September’s General Meeting will feature a presentation by Paul Mayer of the Field Museum. He is one of the co-authors of the paper “The Tully monster is a vertebrate“, which appeared in Nature back in March. It should be a very interesting presentation. It starts at 8:00 in room 1038B of the Tech Ed (TEC)…
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The “Tully Monster” is a vertebrate!
A new paper, co-authored by Paul Mayer of the Field Museum, in Nature sheds light on an age-old mystery. Tullymonstrum gregarium, commonly known as the Tully Monster, is the official state fossil of Illinois, designated in 1989. It’s a soft bodied animal found in the late Carboniferous Mazon Creek biota (approximately 309-307 million years…
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Sneak Peek of Mazon Creek Fossils To Be Auctioned
Tully Monster 1: Tully Monster 2: Tully Monster 3: Cockroach: Bone:
