Evolution

[Merman Craig (Delphinar)]

On the documentary: Mermaids the body found, the guys at NOAA who made that discovery theorized that a group of "early man" was separated from the mainland and evolved into mermaids and mermen. It's an interesting theory, but do you think that some mermaids/mermen evolved into us humans?

[SilverSiren]

I believe that anything is possible. Maybe mermaid DO exist. We know more about space than we do about our own ocean! They could be down in the depths where we can't reach. We could be the evolution of them and we haven't found any bones cause they are buried. Who really knows, right?

[malinghi]

On the documentary: Mermaids the body found, the guys at NOAA who made that discovery theorized that a group of "early man" was separated from the mainland and evolved into mermaids and mermen. It's an interesting theory, but do you think that some mermaids/mermen evolved into us humans?

I'm confused. You're aware that isn't a real documentary, right?

Also, I haven't seen Mermaids: The Body Found, but it sounds like they might be taking inspiration from the Aquatic Ape Theory to make the whole show sound a bit more realistic. The Aquatic Ape Theory suggests that humans may have had a period in our evolutionary history characterized by a fair amount of swimming, based on the observation that humans are quite good at swimming for a primate. Of course, it doesn't make any claims of breathing underwater or having fins. Plus the aquatic ape theory is not considered credible by most of the scientific community.

[Kanti]

From a realistic standpoint I don't think there's been nearly enough time for there to be a mermaid
in existance that EVOLVED into a human.
At least the way I think of it is that terrestrial life started very early on, with amphibians, then it evolved
into reptiles, then birds, then mammals. We haven't really seen any examples of anything that's been
close to anything primate or human that's been in the water it's entire existance.
Whales, dolphins, manatees, and other marine mammals evolved FROM mammals that were already
terrestrial.
So essentially the cycle thus far has been
very ancient ancestors were aquatic -> evolved to become terrestrial and advanced into mammals ->
certain mammals evolved BACK into the water to fill a niche due to life centered around water

As for CAN there be mermaids out there right now? Probably nothing similar to what we think a
mermaid is supposed to look like, but you never know!

I agree with malinghi though, it isn't a real documentary so I wouldn't really consider it's evidence.

[roamingmer]

Have a look at this thread http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?3041-If-merfolk-existed&p=38894#post38894
To be aquatic mammal - you need high blubber content to keep warm (seas are cold), massive set of lungs and great cardio system. Modern humans probably evolved for long distance running; but our different gene pools have got merged so some are good for powerful sprints; body building etc and others for running - whilst our recent evolution towards poor posture and plugging into computers is taking a toll on our bodies.
Humans can make good swimmers because we have a highly evolved ability to direct and override our standard muscle behaviour; learn from others and reason out best practices... otherwise most people will be doggy paddling in the water, and drowning because of it.

[Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!]

Merfolk (at least the classic example of a humanoid upper body with a piscine tail) are impossible according to evolution, because they have roughly equal traits belonging to both mammals and to fish, two classifications that are separated from each other by several distinct evolutionary changes (fish to amphibians, amphibians to reptiles, reptiles to mammals). Sometimes saying "it's magic" and leaving it at that is the only way to avoid a sheer headache, though if you really want to be exacting, merfolk, hippocampi, mythical sea lions (as in a lion with a fish tail instead of hind legs and leonine tail, not to be confused with the pinniped sea lions) might all fall under one family of mythical animals (mammal-fish), while harpies, griffins, sirens, pegasi, hippogriffs, tengu, and the like might fall under another (mammal-bird), and nagas, lamiae, kappas, etc might fall under a third (mammal-reptile). There are also examples of mammal-insect (classic impressions of fairies, grigs) and even mammal-arachnid (scorpion man, driders, etc), not to mention those that clearly fall under one animal family (centaurs, satyrs, minotaurs) or that are shapeshifters (werewolves, selkies) or undead.

[malinghi]

As for CAN there be mermaids out there right now? Probably nothing similar to what we think a mermaid is supposed to look like, but you never know!

I agree that if there were creatures that were effectively aquatic humans out there they wouldn't look much like humans. Presumably they'd be a lot more streamlined and have different skin. Since its impossible for a mammal to breath underwater, they'd simply hold their breath for long periods of time. If you loosen the definitions of a mermaid a little further than that to allow lower-than-human levels of intelligence, dolphins would qualify as merfolk, which is kinda cool.

[Mermaid Annariea]

yeah, if they exist, they look nothing like what we would want/expect them to look like.