is called the father of all demons and is called Tiphoeus (Typhoeus), which is the Titan giant in the Greek mythology. As the most powerful demon, he has great magical powers and a terrifying image. It is said that lightning and flames were sprayed on Tifeng's head, and a huge snake on his lower body, covered with feathers and a pair of wings. Wherever he walked, hell karma fire would be left to destroy everything. After Tifeng was born, he made trouble and did everything he wanted, and was eventually sealed by Zeus with a strategy.
The demon Tifeng in Greek mythology has a weird and terrifying image. Image source: Fandom
The paleobi monster named after Tifeng is also a mysterious and weird and unpredictable animal. It is known as the "three great monsters of paleontology" together with Tali monsters and Neyek worms. They have no ancestors in front of them and no descendants in the future, and they look extremely strange and confusing.
Tifeng monster has been discovered for decades and has many well preserved specimens, but humans have not even figured out which sect it belongs to, let alone the lower classification. But just recently, its possible real body was slowly surfaced...
Tifeng monster's original restoration picture, you can see the fusiform body and a caudal fin, the body is painted with sarcomer similar to a vertebrate animal, and there is also an "eye" in the middle, which looks very strange. Image source: Falmouth University Research Repository (FURR)
01
8 Good teeth, eat soybean
Tifeng monsters lived in the shallow tropical sea north of the equator during the Carboniferous period 324 million years ago. Fossils were found in Bear Valley limestone in Montana, USA. Their bodies were spindle-shaped and the maximum length was 9 Centimeters, behind the body there is a caudal fin supported by two sets of fins perpendicular to each other, and there is no other organ outside; inside them, there is the foregus equivalent to the human oral, esophagus and stomach, and the midgus equivalent to the human small intestine. Below the midgus is a disc-shaped obvious black organ, temporarily called the iron disk (ferrodiscus). Scientists do not know what the purpose of this organ is, but only know that it has a high iron content.
The fossil of the Tifeng monster, you can see a distinct black "iron disk" in the center. There is a thinner channel in front of the iron disk, surrounded by large black tissue. Image source: References [2]
At first glance, the Tifeng monster is a round, strange creature like a flesh bug, with no predatory mouthparts, and no balanced fins and dorsal fins for balance.
According to general logic, such creatures will be difficult to move, let alone prey. However, tooth-shaped fossils can often be found in the body of the Tifeng monster. Dental shapes are free-swimming predatory vertebrates with a morphology similar to lamprey , and have certain swimming abilities. So, what exactly did the Tifeng monster rely on to capture the dentifritic stone?
On September 21, 2022, an article published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Philosophy: Life Sciences shows new discoveries about the Tifung monster. Scientists have found possible traces of phosphorylated muscle tissue and traces of suspected tooth tongue in the fossil of the Tifeng monster.
tooth tongue (Radula) is a unique structure of mollusc . It is located on a base of a "lingual protrusion" at the bottom of the mouth. It consists of tiny teeth called "lingual teeth". It can cut food like a saw and then transport it directly into the esophagus. The structure of the suspected tooth tongue in the fossil of Tifeng Monster is an organ similar to a lingual protrusion identified in the foregus area. The bottom of the lingual protrusion has a mesh and fibrous structure, and two rows of small strands of calcium teeth above it, which is very similar to the tooth tongue structure of molluscs.
Although the typical tooth tongue of molluscs in life has three rows of small teeth, divided into central teeth and side teeth on both sides, there are also some types, such as plateless (aplacophorans) without shells, shellfish that consume jellyfish and anemone - sea snail snail and purple snails. They have no central teeth, only two rows of teeth.Their toothed and tongue structure is similar to that of the Tifeng monster, supporting the argument that the Tifeng monster's structure belongs to the toothed and tongue, and the Tifeng monster with toothed tongue is naturally classified into mollusks.
The tooth oral structure of a mollusk (the tooth oral is a radical teeth) is attached to the lip protrusion (odontophore), which can be turned out from the mouth and nibble in food. Image source: Barnegat Bay Shellfish Radula diagram
The suspected toothed tongue structure of the Tifeng monster is located behind the mouth opening, in a very deep part of the body. Because the tooth tongue is long in the mouth, this shape is interpreted as an inverted long kiss-like structure, that is, this structure is similar to a long, tubular kiss, but is retracted upside down in the esophagus, so the tooth tongue is also received in the middle of the body.
Although this form is a bit incredible to humans, it is not a new trick among mollusks known for their whims:
Professional echinoderm hunter Tonnidae has a giant tubular mouth that can grow, which is the natural enemy of echinoderm animals such as sea cucumber and sea urchins. Some larger species also catch fish. They first paralyze prey with saliva containing sulfuric acid, and then open their mouths to swallow them entirely;
quail snails (right) prey on sea cucumbers (left), and they use tubular mouths that can be stretched into a trumpet-like swallow to swallow the sea cucumbers entirely. Image source: Wikiwand
. The snail (Hydatina) in the sea slug also has a similar structure. They have a long kiss like a tube, which is usually contained in the body, almost the same as the tooth and tongue position of the Tifeng monster. The long kiss of the snail is enclosed in a body cavity filled with liquid. When predating, the snail is turned out by adjusting the hydraulic pressure of the long kiss part, and explores the calcium pipeline of the worms of the Cirratulidae family, and uses the tooth and tongue at the top of the mouthpart to bite them to death and then swallow them.
By observing the predation behavior of living molluscs, we can imagine the predation process of the Tifeng monster: the front digestive tract containing the teeth is forcefully and quickly turned out through hydraulics, so that the teeth are on the outside, rushing towards the prey and preying.
The mouthpiece of the snail (black long tube in front) is usually contained in the body and turned out when used, similar to the Tifeng monster. Image source: Hydatina physics (Linnaeus, 1758) - The Sea Slug Forum › hydaphys
Tifeng monster's tooth tongue (top left), mouthpart (top right) and restoration image, its restoration image is an whale , but it is actually a sea slug. Notes in the figure: ra.-tooth tongue, pr.-kiss, to.tooth, fd. containing iron disc structure, Mo. oral, v.kl. abdominal keel structure, f.gt foregut, m.gt midgut, visceral cyst. Image source: References [3]
02
Swim fast and eat happily
In order to capture swimming prey, Tifeng monsters also need certain motility and perception abilities.
In the fossil of the Tifeng monster, there are large areas of phosphorus deposits on the back of the body, forming a wide contour of two groups of tissue blocks that tilt in opposite directions. The high content of phosphorus represents the presence of muscles, which are likely to represent the muscle tissue used to advance.
At the same time, a pair of protruding fleshy skirt-like objects were found on the ventral side of the Tifeng monster. It was inferred that it forked near the anterior oral area, indicating that the anterior oral area is huge and may be an important auxiliary area for capturing prey.
The fleshy skirt around the mouth may be equivalent to the "mouth curtain" of the living sea slug clad branch (Cladobranchia). The mouth curtain is a circle surrounding the oral structure of the sea slug, which is large and small, and some also has sensory nipples, which can function as a chemical receptor, and can sense the prey position through its sensory position.
Restoration of the monster predating dentifritic stone, it can be seen that its extended mouth is composed of a trumpet-like structure on the outer layer and an inner tooth-tongue complex. There is a circle of yellow protrusions under the body, which forked near the mouth, which may feel the effect.Image source: The Guardian
At the same time, if it is classified as a mollusk, another unknown structure of the Tifeng monster is explained: the large central fusiform area wrapped around the midgut and part of the forgut is equivalent to the visceral sac of the mollusk, and there is a certain degree of similarity between the posterior posterior fin and the fin structure of the sea slug group in the Gastropodaceae such as Carinaria and Pterosoma. And the remaining structure may be gelatinous to help the animal float in the water, using its flexible body and protruding rear fins to push itself in the water.
Therefore, the Tifeng Monster is likely to be a swimming-living, surfing-free mollusk, that is, a sea slug in a broad sense, like the living wavy manatee - a small, highly transparent marine surfing-gaspok mollusk, similar to fish in both body morphology and movement, and is one of the best examples of convergent evolution.
The living phoenix manatee (Phylliroe) is a very close class of fish, which is very close to fish. It advances in the water by swinging its tail and preys on jellyfish and other organisms. Image source: Deep Sea News
The living keel snail (Carinaria) is a large floating gastropod with a transparent body with a body length of up to 50cm. It has a tail and body structure similar to the Tifeng monster. In the part equivalent to the Tifeng monster's "iron plate" is the digestive tract that stores food. Image source: Francesco Turano
03
"Monster" was born, and the ancestors tried
, but even if the Tifeng monster was classified as a gastropod, it was impossible to determine its more specific attribute, because similar plankton-free chamfered gastropods did not appear until Triassic , and the origin of various sea slugs that can only be traced back to the Cretaceous.
Therefore, even if the Tifeng monster is an oceanic gastropod, it will not be the ancestor of the current surfing gastropod, but it is just an early surfing attempt by the gastropod.
In any case, as the earliest possible attempt to transform into a "sea slug" in the Gastropodaceae, the shape of the Tifeng monster has significantly deviated from the appearance of the snail with a thick shell of ordinary gastropods, and evolved into a strange appearance that scientists cannot classify. Modern sea slugs are even more than Tifeng monsters.
They are like thirsty, with electric light on their heads, snake-shaped belly feet on their lower body, covered with "hair", and some have a pair of wings. When attacked, they will emit acid that makes people retreat around them. The Atlantic Sea God sea slug spreads its wings and soars in the ocean like a dragon, the Tassel Sea slug swallows like a lion, the Orthogonal Orthodon can perform photosynthesis , and the Alicia Sea slug can be reborn after the head...
The Atlantic Sea God sea slug (Glaucus atlanticus) of the family Gill family is like a dragon in Western mythology. It preys on the water surface and ingests its sting cells into the body and turns it into its own use. Image source: Wikipedia
lion's mane sea slug (Melibe leonina) has a large mouth disproportionate to the body, with a mouth curtain and sensory tentacles on the mouth, which can close the big mouth and catch shrimps, crabs and other creatures. Image source: Monterey Bay Aquarium
Even though Tifeng has been sealed, Tifeng monsters have become extinct, but their spirit and evolution direction have not disappeared. These sea slugs active in modern oceans, with bright colors, strange appearances and special habits, are their successors and microcosms. After that, we will follow the swimming posture of the Tifeng monster to the magical world of sea slugs and explore these strange and magical creatures.
Produced by | Popular Science Chinese
Author | Gu Ming Di Lian
Producer | China Popular Science Expo
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