Post by merangel on Feb 25, 2016 9:30:12 GMT -5
The possibility of mermaids existing, to me personally, has always been a fascination and pondering the realities is becoming a hobby of mine. In fact, one of my goals is to own a full, high-end mermaid tail for swimming. Which is more realistic than me ever owning a pair of pointes.
Now, if mermaids do exist, they may be surviving in the most remote lagoons on Earth or lurking in undiscovered territory. Considering so many new places have been discovered, thanks to Google Earth and Google Maps, there are places in the world that haven't been explored, or at least, thoroughly researched and documented, which contributes to recorded sightings but not much in proof.
I do think MOST of history's reports on mermaid sightings are misidentified creatures, such as dugongs, manatees, seals, whales and whatnot. But if mermaids never existed, then how and why are there extensive stories, claims of sightings and legends all throughout history? The retelling and obsession seems like society badly wants to believe in them, or at least kids and those who long to swim away and be free in the ocean.
My theory goes like this,
We have populations live on islands and very close to the water. Now, there are, indeed, other land mammals that can hold their breath underwater. Some mammals can do it longer than other, depending on how they have evolved due to their habitat needs. Some have evolved numerous times, as if they can't decide whether they should live on land, in water or both. Coming back to us humans, we do have evidence on ourselves of being aquatic creatures.
But of course we do. We fish and swim and tend to prefer living next to some sort of H2O source, even build urban expanses along coastlines. But we don't really need to be so water drawn. There are nomadic peoples that have lived thousands of years in the arid deserts.
Humans are a species and just like any other species we have different, well what we call races instead of breeds. And in those races are differences in evolution. I'm not bringing up any racism debate here. We are all just human, after all. Just like cats are cats and dogs are dogs, no matter how different each breed is.
Getting back to mermaids, there may have been a race of humans that led a more oceanic life, or lake and river life, than other humans.
There is some argument as to how a slender, ultra feminine creature can exist in the deep depths without getting crushed by the gravity and weight of the deep waters. Or how they can keep warm with little blubber.
I think the answer is that mermaids never lived in the deep depths. If you pay attention, you will notice that mainly every mermaid myth and legend has mermaids sitting on rocks, the beach or wherever, in lagoons and on islands, somewhere on or close to shore and shallow waters. In the story of "The Little Mermaid" and "10000 Leagues Under The Sea" they're the only one's I can think of that depicts mermaids living in the deep abyss. Those are relatively recent stories inspired by mermaid sightings of sailors and beach walkers.
It's more complicated when you really look into the possibilities and analyze the clues that so many people have provided in the past.