Social media users are sharing a photo of what they say is a Spanish dancer jellyfish found in the Papua New Guinea lagoon. This statement is false.
Examples can be seen here and here. One report reads: “This is a Spanish dancer Jelly Fish found in the lagoons of Papua New Guinea.”
Users commented on the photo and expressed amazement and appreciation. One report reads: “Can you believe how beautiful the creation of God was before we went too far?”
A caption similar to the one in Facebook posts can be found on the wiki website Fandom, which contains posts that any user can create and edit (here.). The image (here) and information posted on social media was added by Fandom user Somarinoa (here).
The actual photo shows the digital artwork of the French photographer, Francis Le Guen, who created the image of the nude branch (sea snail) with Apophysis software. Le Guen discussed how the image became the “Spanish dancer” and in 2012 shared other digital sea creations on his website. On the article’s page, the introduction (in French) says that viewers should not search for these underwater creatures themselves, because they are all designed using the digital software (here).
There is a nude branch called the Spanish dancer (here). These sea snails look in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and boast bright colors and do not look like the image shared on Facebook.
Snopes denied the claim here in 2016.
VERDICT
Untrue. The image is a digital creation of a red sea snail by Francis Le Guen.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.