This is NOT a real tortoise species but a turtle shaped glass pendent? (PHOTO)

It’s quite common to come across breathtaking, life-like artworks and designs resembling nature as well as animals. However, some of these artworks get misinterpreted on social media as well. This is our investigation about such a miscaptioned image of a

It’s quite common to come across breathtaking, life-like artworks and designs resembling nature as well as animals. However, some of these artworks get misinterpreted on social media as well.

This is our investigation about such a miscaptioned image of a tortoise shaped glass pendant, claiming to be a living tortoise species!

Social Media Posts

Viral image claimed that the image of a seemingly beautiful crystal sea tortoise is actually a living tortoise in the Atlantic Ocean and was caught near Panama.

The image caption read as “This is not a glass or crystal one but a real tortoise living in the Atlantic Ocean n caught near Panama. It was later released back to the ocean. How great is God’s creation!!!”

Facebook | Archived Facebook

It was viral in the Facebook.

Due to the virality of these posts, we decided to do a fact check on this.

Fact check

First, we searched the mainstream media to check whether a story related to such an amazing tortoise species discovery had been made in the Atlantic Ocean near Panama. However, we were not able to find any such news reports.

Then we did a Google Reverse Image Search and were able to find the details behind this viral sea tortoise image.

It was not a real tortoise, but a glass pendant created by an artist named “Paul Katherman” shaped as a designer turtle!

Instagram| Archived

Artist Paul Katherman is known for creating similar artworks using the glass as a material. He has a dedicated social media channels to publish similar glass-based designs Facebook | Instagram

The viral image along with many other glass turtle pendants were seen in the below video by Katherman Glass as well.

Here are some of similar glass-based turtle shaped pendants Paul had published in his official website for sale.

Also, this was not the first time misleading claims were viral related to Paul’s creation and here is a post he had published related to an email scam.

Even though sea turtles and tortoises often get grouped under similar “turtle” name there are few differences between the two species. More on this here.

Conclusion

According to our investigation it’s clear that the image on viral social media post do not depict a real sea tortoise species. It`s a designer pendant created by artist Paul Katherman using glass as the material.

Title:A tortoise species resembling a crystal structure found near Panama? (PHOTO)

Fact Check By: Kalana Krishantha

Result: Misleading

මෙම පුවත නොමඟ යවන සුළුයි ලෙස වර්ගීකරණය කර ඇත.