As far as retractions go, it's an unusual one: A group of scientists have yanked their May 2022 paper claiming a goblin shark had been sighted for the first time in the Mediterranean as well as their defense, published March 13, 2023, of their study. The March 20 move came amid criticisms that the specimen that was discovered wasn't a genuine shark but rather a toy. Their record, published in Mediterranean Marine Science, was based solely on "citizen science": a photo of the creature taken on the shores of Greece’s Anafi Island in 2020. The image didn't contain anything that would establish a sense of scale, and the shark wasn't collected but was instead left to the sea. The standout twists and turns: