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Did mermen ever really exist?

MikeG said:
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 ****.
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...Like :

Throughout history, various explorers have reported sightings of mermaids, the most famous of which was Christopher Columbus.

Columbus claimed to have spotted mermaids near Haiti in 1493, which he described as being "not as pretty as they are depicted, for somehow in the face they look like men," according to the American Museum of Natural History.

Captain John Smith is described in Edward Rowe Snow's "Incredible Mysteries and Legends of the Sea" (Dodd Mead, January 1967) as seeing a big-eyed, green-haired mermaid in 1614 off the coast of Newfoundland; apparently Smith felt "love" for her until he realized she was a fish from the waist down.

Experts believe Columbus, Smith and other mermaid-spotting explorers really caught glimpses of human-sized marine mammals called manatees and dugongs.

Indeed, despite past and recent "sightings" of the mythical sea creatures, mermaids, like the Lock Ness Monster, may just be a case of mistaken identity.
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https://www.livescience.com/45733-are-mermaids-real.html

You know better than Christopher Columbus..?
 
Apathia said:
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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An Ashura popping up in an historical battlefield would certainly kick it into 'magic realism'. :o
 
Vixen said:
An Ashura popping up in an historical battlefield would certainly kick it into 'magic realism'. :o
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I can do that with impunity.

Given the right assumptions, your fictional Merman can be perfectly believable without any factual existence.
 
Vixen said:
......You know better than Christopher Columbus..?
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Yes of course I do. I have half a millennia of combined human experience in the matter to refer to. In that half millennia humans have developed science to a point unimaginable by Columbus.
 
Vixen said:
........https://www.livescience.com/45733-are-mermaids-real.html..........
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From that link:

The program was filmed to appear to be a documentary, complete with interviews with "scientists" (paid actors) and phone-camera footage. With only the show's very brief disclaimer in the end credits noting it was a work of fiction, many viewers thought that proof of mermaids' existence had finally come to light.
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You're either guilty of not reading the stuff you link to, or you are just trolling. Which is it, Vixen?
 
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.
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You can't have it both ways.

You can't simultaneously claim that there are stories of mermen from numerous different cultures around the world- meaning lots of people saw them- and then say there are almost certainly undiscovered species in the oceans- meaning no-one has seen them, at least not in modern times.

If they were as numerous and widespread as the myths you are relying on claim, then we would have sightings from the C20th at least.

I can't believe I've been sucked into this....
 
Cosmic Yak said:
You can't have it both ways.

You can't simultaneously claim that there are stories of mermen from numerous different cultures around the world- meaning lots of people saw them- and then say there are almost certainly undiscovered species in the oceans- meaning no-one has seen them, at least not in modern times.

If they were as numerous and widespread as the myths you are relying on claim, then we would have sightings from the C20th at least.

I can't believe I've been sucked into this....
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Not only that, we would have evidence from underwater cameras, video from surface vessels and Ariel photography.
 
sphenisc said:
Not only that, we would have evidence from underwater cameras, video from surface vessels and Ariel photography.
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So, if it ain't on tv, you ain't gonna believe it.

So the Kardashians and Markles are real bonafide developing news, soon to be included in University syllabii.

We know this, because I saw it on the news.

Never said nuffink about no ancient species of mammals with fishtail-like behind, like whales, for example.

We know whales exist because of Moby Dick and Free Willy, right? They're not fiction, not like what mermaids and mermen are.
 
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Cosmic Yak said:
You can't have it both ways.

You can't simultaneously claim that there are stories of mermen from numerous different cultures around the world- meaning lots of people saw them- and then say there are almost certainly undiscovered species in the oceans- meaning no-one has seen them, at least not in modern times.

If they were as numerous and widespread as the myths you are relying on claim, then we would have sightings from the C20th at least.

I can't believe I've been sucked into this....
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I didn't say they were 'numerous' I considered that maybe they were extinct, having once existed, given the numerous sightings from all different cultures and eras.
 
Vixen said:
I see. We need OJ Simpson-style helicopters charting mermaids being chased over the waves by hoardes of papparazzi before we believe anything.
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No, but using some logic and knowledge about nature should tell us what is possible, likely, unlikely, very unlikely or impossible.

Fact. I have seen a preserved (in formaldehyde) body of a mermaid (or merman, it was hard to see) not more than to months ago. Couldn't touch the glass container, because it was just out of reach, but there it was. Just next to the two headed calf (also preserved in formaldehyde). Ugly as heck, I can tell you.

Mermaids and mermen still don't exist, though.
 
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