Why mermaids are fake

In the ancient Far East, mermaids were the wives of powerful sea-dragons, and served as trusted messengers between their spouses and the emperors on land.

The aboriginal people of Australia call mermaids yawkyawks — a name that may refer to their mesmerizing songs.

The belief in mermaids may have arisen at the very dawn of our species. Whatever the case may be, these beautiful debatable yet interesting creatures remain to be one of the exciting explorations.

One of the most famous Mermaid sightings was in Kiryat Yam in Israel in The natives claimed to have seen the underwater creatures; yes they were many in numbers to come near the coast blue-collar Israeli town. So much buzz created around the mermaids found that the mayor of the town announced a prize of 1 million dollar to anyone who could prove that the mermaids really existed!

Mermaids were claimed to be present on earth in as early as and these claims were made by none other than greatest voyager Christopher Columbus! Surrealist painter Rene Magritte depicted a sort of reverse mermaid in his painting "The Collective Invention. By the s, hoaxers churned out faked mermaids by the dozen to satisfy the public's interest in the creatures. The great showman P. Barnum displayed the " Feejee Mermaid " in the s and it became one of his most popular attractions.

Those paying 50 cents hoping to see a long-limbed, fish-tailed beauty comb her hair were surely disappointed; instead they saw a grotesque fake corpse a few feet long. It had the torso, head and limbs of a monkey and the bottom part of a fish. To modern eyes it was an obvious fake, but it fooled and intrigued many at the time.

Could there be a scientific basis for the mermaid stories? Some researchers believe that sightings of human-size ocean animals such as manatees and dugongs might have inspired merfolk legends. These animals have a flat, mermaid-like tail and two flippers that resemble stubby arms. They don't look exactly like a typical mermaid or merman, of course, but many sightings were from quite a distance away, and being mostly submerged in water and waves only parts of their bodies were visible.

Identifying animals in water is inherently problematic, since eyewitnesses by definition are only seeing a small part of the creature.

When you add in the factor of low light at sunset and the distances involved, positively identifying even a known creature can be very difficult. The artists did not see the manatees. They heard the story of the sailers. Great post, Craig. Just saying …. People used the same word impossible about platipus.. But eventually that turned out to be more than possible. According to science faries cant exist aswell.. My word they do.. Then again i believe that if ancient primates would be told about homo sapiens they would show the same impossible type reaction.

Its up to the creature how it would adapt to its sorroundings.. We cant imagine that sitting here.. Lots of wierd unlikely charastaristics were seen among creatures that we woudnt actually believe.. But your article is a good one.. Not that I think there are mermaids, but all these points aside from the fifth one are horrible lmao.

Very good points, but since I am a fish breeder, I must disagree with point 3. Not all fish give birth to eggs, the fish molly gives birth to live free swimming fry, and have babies almost once a month. As for the cold water, the mermaids could have adapted to the cold water. Not by being obese or hairy, just by adapting to be cold resistant and not being slowed down. Funny post, just a daily dose of fake for someone. Also it would make sense that they only live in shallow waters, because that would explain all of the sightings.

Maybe they can only dive deep for a small period of time. Also, who says that they have lungs? Now, if they did only reside in shallow waters, then they could be thin. Also the reproduction thing; maybe they have neither human or fish anatomy, and have their own way of repopulating. Also, with the constipated thing; perhaps they actually do have gills and expel ammonia just as fish do.

Just like in court when people are innocent until proven guilty, I believe the subject of mermaids being real is possible until proven impossible. That is all…. No offense but why do we always try to scientifically compare everything to human if mermaids are magical they could have ways of surviving.

Their necessities of life could be different then ours. Plus there is no proof that they are mammals,or birds,or reptiles. It is unnessicary to compare e. The whole thing was extremely insulting. I actually got invested and read up on it and then I realised it was fake. I feel like an idiot. Anyway, this is a funny and beautiful post, thanks a lot and congrats!

Sounds great with Wikipedia! Aeolius, a. Merman Dan. The mark of wisdom is the ability to entertain an idea without accepting it. Rick- good question- check out my reply to Fred, above. Great Read! THANK you for such an awesome, fun and scientific take-down! Matt- yes very unlikely. You would probably spend much of your time caught in coral, I imagine. Also: Volcano vents.

But Fat Hairy Mermaids… seriously… I like this. This needs to be a thing. Katrina — great thoughts! I hope somebody buys me a fur-bearing trout for Christmas.