Here are some of the fossils in the Field Museum collections that scientists used to study the Tully Monster. Can you think about why it might be hard to reconstruct what a creature looked like from its fossils?

Can you identify some similarities or differences between this Tully Monster fossil and the other Tully Monster fossils in this slideshow?

Tully monster was a soft bodied creature that lived in the Pennsylvanian period about 300 million years ago.

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Field Museum

Tully Monster

Organisms can also become fossils in all sorts of positions. What position do you think this Tully Monster was in when it was fossilized?

Thousands of Tully monster fossils have been found in
Illinois.

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Not all fossils show complete organisms - this can make it difficult to tell organism a fossil might be! 

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Fossils come in all shapes and sizes, and not all fossils are complete! Do you think you can see all of the Tully Monster's body in this fossil?

Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

Standards for Tully Monster Fossils

Next Generation Science Standards