Jun 26, 2025
a bit rude to call them a monster, they're just weird, ok?
seen from China
seen from Türkiye
seen from Russia
seen from Australia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Bulgaria
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Türkiye
seen from South Korea
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Mexico
seen from Netherlands
seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
a bit rude to call them a monster, they're just weird, ok?
Tully monster happy meal order
tullimonstrum posting
fossil fanatic design for people like me!! had fun adding the tully monster one - i love a good mazon creek fossil
We don’t actually know if the tully monster was silly.
I'm back from the rock show! Here are the Cool Rocks I got!
Let's start with the fossils this time.
This year I finally tracked down a Tully Monster, which is my state fossil! He's not a complete fossil, but you can see his eyestalk and the bottom of his proboscis very clearly.
A big chunk of dinosaur bone from Utah! Dino bone is easy to ID due to its distinct pattern, where agate and jasper have filled in the porous structure of the bone.
This is a coprolite, a piece of fossilized dinosaur poop! This one is from Madagascar.
This one is a stromatolite, a rock formation created by a colony of bacteria! Stromatolites are some of the oldest fossils on Earth. In fact, the microbes that make them were likely the very first lifeforms on the planet. And they're still around today, mostly unchanged from their ancient ancestors, and still making rock formations! This little stromatolite came from Madagascar.
A giant chunk of Turritella agate, which I won at the silent auction! Turritella agate is made of a bunch of fossilized snail shells all packed together and filled in with agate. (Despite the name, they're not actually Turritella snails, but rather Elimia tenera.) When cut and polished, it reveals beautiful organic patterns. This stuff comes from Wyoming.
That's all the fossils I brought home! Now on to the minerals!
I was very responsible and didn't come home with a million agates this year, but I couldn't resist this gorgeous rain flower agate! Hailing from Nanijing, China, these agates are naturally polished by the Yangtze River and have a unique, frosted finish.
Another cabochon for my cab collection! This is afghanite, a blue mineral that isn't related to the sodalite family, but likes to grow alongside it.
It fluoresces!
Vesuvianite, a mineral that gets its name because it was first discovered on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius! The dark crystals growing on its surface are garnets. This piece is showing off a great example of vesuvianite's crystal habit and terminations.
A huge zircon crystal! Zircon is the oldest mineral on planet Earth. There's a deposit in Australia which has been radiometric dated to be about 4.4 billion years old! Not this guy, though. This one is from Pakistan.
It fluoresces!
An AMAZING specimen of anatase! It's extremely rare for anatase crystals to grow this large. In fact, the only other anatase crystals I've seen in person had to be viewed under a microscope!
Here's the most expensive piece I came home with - a South African diamond! Can you believe I didn't have a diamond in my collection yet? That problem has been remedied.
It fluoresces!
And finally, my friends and I broke open a few geodes at the geode-cracking booth. I picked out some Trancas geodes from Mexico.
This locale produces weird, wavy, wormy crystals! These formations occur when quartz (in the form of chalcedony or hyalite) grows atop hair-thin, curly crystals of anhydrite.
They fluoresce!
And that was my haul from the rock show!
What’s your opinion on the Tully Monster?
funny guy
April sticker club theme reveals: Asian Giant Softshell Turtle & Green Salamander, and Morning Glory Tully Monster & Trilobite.
Join my Patreon by March 31st to receive your choice of herpetology, prehistory, or both sets of stickers in April!