![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tasselled wobbegong
Aug. 23rd, 2022 06:58 amtasselled wobbegong (TAS-uhld WOB-ee-gong) - n., a bottom-dwelling carpet shark (Eucrossorhinus dasypogon) of the coasts of northern Australia and New Guinea with a fringe of elaborate dermal flaps around its head.
As redonkulous as that name is, the lede is partially buried there. Lemme give it the emphasis it needs:
It's a carpet shark.
There is a family of bottom-dwelling sharks (Orectolobidae) called carpet sharks. Who don't live in your carpet -- they're flat and live on the ocean floor, and so look like carpets -- this one more than usual:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
There are about 12 species of carpet sharks, also all called wobbegongs of various kinds, the name probably coming from an uncertain Indigenous Australian language. And in conclusion,
carpet sharks
---L.
As redonkulous as that name is, the lede is partially buried there. Lemme give it the emphasis it needs:
It's a carpet shark.
There is a family of bottom-dwelling sharks (Orectolobidae) called carpet sharks. Who don't live in your carpet -- they're flat and live on the ocean floor, and so look like carpets -- this one more than usual:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
There are about 12 species of carpet sharks, also all called wobbegongs of various kinds, the name probably coming from an uncertain Indigenous Australian language. And in conclusion,
carpet sharks
---L.
