Well, Stephen Hillenburg was a marine biologist before creating SpongeBob, he was just implementing what he knew.
EDIT: I just saw “newly discovered”. Maybe a coincidence?
Until you realize Daniel Kingsley, creator of Phineas and Ferb, predicted that the platypus was teal under ultraviolet light 13 years before it was discovered.
Has been spotted and known about since (at least) 2017 iirc
Described as a Bright-red Chaunacops or “sea toad”
Life imitates art
Perhaps the animators of the Spongebob Movie found one first and just didn’t tell anyone about it.
Or maybe they created this creature for reference while making the movie and then released it into the wild when they were done. Or maybe it’s just coincidence. Who can say. These all seem equally plausible to me.
Or maybe an expert in the field decided to make something bizarre yet plausible, only to be shown that nature has been playing that same game for a lot longer. The fact it’s living now is a neat coincidence.
Hillenburg’s secret lab will never be found after his passing. The knowledge of creating new species (solely for animation reference) and great SpongeBob episodes were lost with him 😔
hey there
There are many fishes that look like that cartoon one.
That’s what my best mate told me after my last break up
Oof. My condolences dude…
Thats a Squig.
