Mermaids, Reality or Fantasy?

The mermaid, a mythical creature that has captured our imaginations from the dawn of written time, their images are found in some of the oldest illustrated books, and stories held the knowledge of mermaids for hundreds of years before that.

So are these mythical beings real or not? I don't think we will ever know for sure, but what we do know are the alleged sightings.

In ancient times sailors would return home with tales of beautiful women who would sit on rocks and comb their long glossy hair, some would sing and try to lure the men into crashing their boats against the rocks. Their description has long since been the same; Usually only female, with long hair, a torso of a woman and a shining tail of a fish. The number of tails is the only thing that truly varies, some images show one tail, others show two or more. Some mermaids are even depicted as having powers over the ocean and weather,but could these magickal creatures truly be real?

In times gone by the theory of dugong and sailors missing their wives was common, even today the hallucination theory is still in circulation, but now in the 21st Century some radical thinkers have come up with another theory, and a new mermId legend.

The aquatic ape theory has been around for decades, but it has never been in the mind of the public as much as after the mockumentary "Mermaids- Body Found". During the program a unheard sound and unusual sighting provoked searches for a possible body, and one was found. After months of research the body was descovered to have both human and marine mammal characterists.

So, what is the Aquatic Ape theory? It it said that when man was learning to walk upright he came to the water for balance and boyancy, they found easy food and stayed close to the water. When Pangaea began to break up and volcanic activity on the continents began to increase some early humans retreated back onto land but others potentially could have gone further into the sea. If this had occurred over many thousands of years they would begin to adapt to their watery home, gaining gills rather than lungs, webbed hands and potentially, a tail.

This theory is extreme but many other mammals have completed this transition, all of our marine mammal species were once terrestrial creatures whose ancestors made the active choice to return to sea.

The aquatic ape theory is difficult to get your head around but humans already have the beginnings of webbing on our hands, we can hold our breath for much longer than most other terrestrial animals and we can easily adapt to a marine lifestyle; as was found in the Moken people in Tailand. Here the children have developed full control of their lense contraction allowing them to see perfectly underwater, they even get land sick when they return to shore.

Which type of mermaids do you think are more likely, the romantic mythical and magical women who comb their hair and potentially have powers over the ocean and weather, or the evolutionary possibility of mermaids being derived from early humans? The choice is yours.

Till next time...
xox - E

Image: http://hqwallbase.com/images/big/mermaid_in_pastel-1528531.jpg