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On 12 November 2014, the Twitter account @EarthBeauties posted a photograph of what was claimed to be a satanic leaf-tailed gecko: Nearly four years later, the Pictures in History Facebook page posted the same photograph, describing the pictured creature as a flying lizard: The animal seen here is indeed a type of lizard known as the satanic leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus phantasticus), but it does not actually have wings. Those dragon-like appendages were added to a photograph taken by author, entomologist, and photographer Piotr Naskrecki. Naskrecki, who is also the photographer behind the amazing puppy-sized spider photographs, posted the unaltered images of the gecko on his blog The Smaller Majority on 22 September 2012: The gecko grew wings about a year later when the photograph was posted to the Hybrid Animals subreddit, which encourages participants to Create new animals by combining species with each other and/or with any other stuff you find appropriate. Using Photoshop. The altered photograph began spreading online and received a big viral push on 9 June 2013 when it was retweeted by the Game Of Thrones Twitter account: The doctored photograph of the satanic leaf-tailed gecko has seen a few spikes in popularity since it first went viral in 2013, and it will likely see a few more surges over the years. But regardless of how many times the image goes viral, this species of gecko will never sprout wings nor become a member of the dragon family.
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