Was "Tully Monster" a chordate?

[Halichoeres]

I've alluded to this in other threads, but the conclusion of the "Tully Monster is a vertebrate" paper is very probably wrong. the Tully monster remains a mystery but might be a protostome.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pala.12282

[Halichoeres]

Another paper showing that the evidence for Tullimonstrum being a chordate, let alone a vertebrate, is pretty weak. The melanin-deposition patterns in the eyes turn out to not be unique to vertebrates, and are described here in cephalopods:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.1649

Tully Monster being some kind of crazy mollusk seems more plausible than its being a chordate at this point, but its affinity is still very much an open question.

[Halichoeres]

Chalk another one up in the 'not a vertebrate' column, but possibly still in the chordate column. The authors argue pretty strongly against the v-shaped myomeres, brain, and gill morphology of vertebrates, but suggest it isn't impossible that Tullimonstrum might have been allied to cephalochordates or vetulicolians, or a late member of the chordate stem-group.

With an illustration by Takahiro Sakono:


Paper (paywall, but pm me for a pdf): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/pala.12646

[Faelrin]

I love how the title changes every time a new paper comes out lol.

[EmperorDinobot]

The real question we should be asking is whether the Lambton Worm was a chordate.

[Halichoeres]

I love how the title changes every time a new paper comes out lol.

Wouldn't be necessary if the Tully Monster would just pick a phylum already!

The real question we should be asking is whether the Lambton Worm was a chordate.

I had to look that up and I'm mad about it.