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Did mermen ever really exist?

Myriad said:
There are no merfolk. Don't go looking for them.

If you do go looking for them, don't go looking in and around Innsmouth, Massachusetts.

It has a different name now anyhow. You won't recognize it.

If you do recognize it, don't go poking around. You won't see anything unusual.

No, that's not a tentacle. Don't stare. It's not polite.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tTHn2tHhcI
 
Vixen said:
Mythology and folklore is rife with tales of mermen, mermaids and sirens.

For example, the Russians had a Sea Tsar, as in the folk tale of Sadko which can be said to be similar to the bucca found in Cornish folklore, with concommitant green features and seaweed hair, the Irish merrow, (ditto), and of course we have Neptune/Poseidon and Glaucus, born human with an urge to be fish, so the gods answered his prayers.

Stories of mermen, usually depicted as extremely ugly, wise, teachers, mermaids, the exact opposite, and sirens who are part seal, with lovely singing voices , with the power to lure unwary sailors to their deaths, are so ubiquitous throughout different cultures, is there a possibility they once really existed (or, even, still exist)?

Enquiring minds need to know.
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May I recommend a date with Ramona Random. She may be able to brief you assuming you are cleared for Blue Hades, otherwise the date may be ...
 
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The poster who claims the ocean and all its fossils has been completely charted is talking rubbish. Biologists openly admit there are numerous numbers of fish species yet to be found as the oceans are vast and deep, especially around the Indian Ocean in the southern regions.

Thanks for your contributions, all, (even the friends of Amanda Knox). The main reason I asked is because I have an idea for a novel and was wondering if it would be implausible to include a merman type figure in there (through the eyes of a child).

Maybe it'd work as some kind of illusion.
 
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Vixen said:
The poster who claims the ocean and all its fossils has been completely charted is talking rubbish. Biologists openly admit there are numerous numbers of fish species yet to be found as the oceans are vast and deep, especially around the Indian Ocean in the southern regions.

Thanks for your contributions, all, (even the friends of Amanda Knox). The main reason I asked is because I have an idea for a novel and was wondering if it would be implausible to include a merman type figure in there (through the eyes of a child).

Maybe it'd work as some kind of illusion.
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Well some large mammalian creature like a mermaid would need to breathe air. Hard to imagine it would cling to the great depths like abyssal crabs or deep-sea fish. We've identified damn near every large mammal in the oceans in modern history.

I cringe when cryptozoologists try to hide their pet cryptids in the ocean depths "hey just cause we haven't found it yet doesn't mean it ain't out there!"
 
Venom said:
Well some large mammalian creature like a mermaid would need to breathe air. Hard to imagine it would cling to the great depths like abyssal crabs or deep-sea fish. We've identified damn near every large mammal in the oceans in modern history.

I cringe when cryptozoologists try to hide their pet cryptids in the ocean depths "hey just cause we haven't found it yet doesn't mean it ain't out there!"
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New species are being discovered all the time, especially in plants, fish and small animals.

An eminent anthroplogist, Elaine Morgan, believes humans were evolved from the sea, hence the relatively hairless skin.

Claiming everything to be known is known is blinkered.
 
Vixen said:
Mythology and folklore is rife with tales of mermen, mermaids and sirens.

For example, the Russians had a Sea Tsar, as in the folk tale of Sadko which can be said to be similar to the bucca found in Cornish folklore, with concommitant green features and seaweed hair, the Irish merrow, (ditto), and of course we have Neptune/Poseidon and Glaucus, born human with an urge to be fish, so the gods answered his prayers.

Stories of mermen, usually depicted as extremely ugly, wise, teachers, mermaids, the exact opposite, and sirens who are part seal, with lovely singing voices , with the power to lure unwary sailors to their deaths, are so ubiquitous throughout different cultures, is there a possibility they once really existed (or, even, still exist)?

Enquiring minds need to know.
Click to expand...

Pretty much every culture on Earth shares a lot of the same or similar mythologies and whatnot. It's more indicative of us and how we think than it is of there actually being a race of Mermaids or Yeti's, etc. Replace "Mermaids" with pretty much any other legend and it's the same deal.
 
Vixen said:
The poster who claims the ocean and all its fossils has been completely charted is talking rubbish. Biologists openly admit there are numerous numbers of fish species yet to be found as the oceans are vast and deep, especially around the Indian Ocean in the southern regions.
Thanks for your contributions, all, (even the friends of Amanda Knox). The main reason I asked is because I have an idea for a novel and was wondering if it would be implausible to include a merman type figure in there (through the eyes of a child).

Maybe it'd work as some kind of illusion.
Click to expand...
Has any Biologist found a Merman?
 
Vixen said:
New species are being discovered all the time, especially in plants, fish and small animals.

An eminent anthroplogist, Elaine Morgan, believes humans were evolved from the sea, hence the relatively hairless skin.

Claiming everything to be known is known is blinkered.
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I agree, there are always new things to know and learn, that is what propels science.

The idea of half human, half fish tings though, hmm.
 
Vixen said:
.........An eminent anthroplogist, Elaine Morgan, believes humans were evolved from the sea, hence the relatively hairless skin........
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Can you name a land animal which didn't evolve from the sea?

There are lots of people who support the idea that part of our ancestry included a period when we were semi-aquatic, but most suggest this was freshwater rather than saline, and not a single sane one of them has ever suggested that we had a scaly tail in place of legs at any stage. Anyone who thinks that has a head full of ****.
 
Vixen said:
New species are being discovered all the time, especially in plants, fish and small animals.

An eminent anthroplogist, Elaine Morgan, believes humans were evolved from the sea, hence the relatively hairless skin.
Click to expand...


Humans have as many hair follicles per square inch of skin as apes. Elaine Morgan is an anthropologist, not a biologist. She didn't invent the idea of an aquatic period in human evolution, but championed it as a feminist laternative to the "male hunter" trope of the early '70s. Mainstream biologists have ignored the theory.


Claiming everything to be known is known is blinkered.
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Nobody is claiming everything is known. What they are claiming is that the sum of the available evidence gives no reason to believe that such a species exists.

When one ignores some evidence (like actual evolutionary biology) and favors some other (like folk stories), then one is blinkered. It would be as if ... what would be a good example? It would be as if one were to believe that an American college student sex-murdered her roommate.
 
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Vixen said:
New species are being discovered all the time, especially in plants, fish and small animals.

An eminent anthroplogist, Elaine Morgan, believes humans were evolved from the sea, hence the relatively hairless skin.

Claiming everything to be known is known is blinkered.
Click to expand...

Conversely, claiming anything that is imaginable may exist, is bonkers.
 
The important question is: should the mer-tsar get back in power?
Please answer using copious references to mer-nazism and mer-colonialism.
 
Vixen said:
Mythology and folklore is rife with tales of mermen, mermaids and sirens.For example, the Russians had a Sea Tsar, as in the folk tale of Sadko which can be said to be similar to the bucca found in Cornish folklore, with concommitant green features and seaweed hair, the Irish merrow, (ditto), and of course we have Neptune/Poseidon and Glaucus, born human with an urge to be fish, so the gods answered his prayers.

Stories of mermen, usually depicted as extremely ugly, wise, teachers, mermaids, the exact opposite, and sirens who are part seal, with lovely singing voices , with the power to lure unwary sailors to their deaths, are so ubiquitous throughout different cultures, is there a possibility they once really existed (or, even, still exist)?

Enquiring minds need to know.
Click to expand...

No. That's why it's called 'mythology and folklore', not 'history' .
 
Vixen said:
The poster who claims the ocean and all its fossils has been completely charted is talking rubbish. Biologists openly admit there are numerous numbers of fish species yet to be found as the oceans are vast and deep, especially around the Indian Ocean in the southern regions.

Thanks for your contributions, all, (even the friends of Amanda Knox). The main reason I asked is because I have an idea for a novel and was wondering if it would be implausible to include a merman type figure in there (through the eyes of a child).

Maybe it'd work as some kind of illusion.
Click to expand...


Hey, the sky's the limit, and that's not very limiting. Given a multiverse, or simply other planets to play with, You can make a very plausible world in which there are Mermen.

You can make your creatures biologically plausible, or you can just assume them via Magical Realism.

Some of us here write Fantasy and Science Fictions stories with ease and not a care about if the creatures we write about ever existed. Stories are good that way. I'm happy to write about creatures from Irish and Japanese folklore and religions. I don't feel I have to write about only scientifically verified species. I don't mind supernatural elements in my stories. I do have a fudge about "ultranaturalism," but its not something serious.

Being skeptical about Mermen, doesn't keep you from loading up your fictional net with them. The writers for the TV series Siren don't care whether or not there could be or could have been Mermaids.

Who's to say there's not a Megadolon somewhere out in the Pacific trenches.
It makes no difference to anyone profiting from "The Meg."

You let me have my Ashura and I'll let you have your Merman. :wackyyes:
 
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