A post on Facebook, showing a screenshot of a tweet, says: “Today I learnt that there is such a thing as the tasselled wobbegong shark and I need to share it with you all”, accompanied by a picture of a peculiar-looking sea creature.
Several marine biologists tweeted in response that the picture did not show a tasselled wobbegong shark, but in fact, a goosefish. The person who tweeted the picture clarified in a subsequent tweet that it wasn’t a shark, though the original incorrect tweet is still live.
The tasselled wobbegong is a species of well-camouflaged flat shark that ambushes its prey along the floors of the reef around the western Pacific Ocean. Goosefish are a group of several different species of fish, but they are generally deep sea animals with a flat shape that also ambush their prey.
If you do a Google image search for “tasselled wobbegong shark” the picture in question does appear, incorrectly captioned on Reddit. But although tasselled wobbegong sharks and goosefish do look similar, the picture in question is not a shark.