A mermaid (from the Middle English mere in the obsolete sense 'sea'(as in maritime,the Latin mare, "sea") + maid(en)) is a legendary aquatic creature with the head and torso of human female and the tail of a fish. The male version of a mermaid is called a merman; the gender-neutral plural is merfolk. Various cultures throughout the world have similar figures. Much like Sirens, mermaids in stories would sometimes sing to sailors and enchant them, distracting them from their work and causing them to walk off the deck or cause shipwrecks. Other stories would have them squeeze the life out of drowning men while trying to rescue them. They are also said to take them down to their underwater kingdoms. In Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid it is said that they forget that humans cannot breathe underwater, while others say they drown men out of spite.

Legends of these half-human, half-fish humanoids have circulated for millennia, even as far back as 5,000 B.C.[1] It has been widely suggested or implied that manatees or dugongs could be behind the myth of the mermaid. An example supporting this theory would be that Christopher Columbus had logged that he had seen mermaids on his journey to the new world, but thought they would be more attractive. These large aquatic mammals are notable for the way in which they carry their young, cradled in their arms much as a human would carry a baby. It is possible that sailors seeing these unfamiliar beasts for the first time, would assume that they had in fact stumbled across some sort of humanoid species, and consequently spread their accounts of the sightings through their homelands on their return from voyages. It has even been posited that the traditional image of a mermaid with long flowing hair could be attributed to manatees breaking the ocean surface underneath patches of seaweed, and giving the unfamiliar observer the impression of having long hair. Sightings from first-hand witnesses generally describe mermaids who do not talk at all, who have green, black, brown, and blonde hair and who have a bottom half of a fish, they are also said to be sighted when Scuba Diving, rarely seen in rivers.[2]

There was a kid on here named Creeper that claimed to have seen one and took a pic of it. Which conviently disappeared. They don't exist.

What happened to him?

I miss his well thought out, properly constructed and remarkably informative posts.

I don't know if I believe that. In this world anything is possible.

So some men went looking for a mermaid, heard a high pitched sound and found a fish skeleton; so that serves as evidence of their existence?
Unfortunately not.

There's no way this creature is real, The way we fish the sea's one would have been found a long time ago......

What are you talking about? I believe it was last year or two ago there was a discovery of a new species of fish.
I doubt we would have found it a long time ago. Can you say for sure you know what the hell is down in the deepest darkest parts of the ocean? lol. Places man has never gone and probably never will go. That's very close minded. Like the sea is a pond, not much to discover. Open your mind to possibilities. Come on people. Why is that so hard? If you think about it, we only fish the most common. (In the US). I believe it was either China or Japan that discovered the fish. As soon as they took it from it's habitat it died. I think they're were two.

I personally don't make it a habit to rule out life forms that may very well exist in the depths of the ocean. Man can only go but so far. Mermaid, why not? ofcourse if one is thinking Ariel then yes that's ridiculous. How ever there was this old guy lmao I don't know his name but supposedly he went out with a crew of men to search for mermaids. The men started to become entranced by a high pitched sound...I'm assuming not a dolphin. A few men wanted to jump into the ocean. So the theory is the mermaids would "seduce" them with their song and lead men into to sea to devour them. Reports said that they found a comb made out of bone. I don't know if I believe that. In this world anything is possible.

There's a reason why we can't go down so deep, you know?

At the deepest part of the ocean there's over 8 tonnes of pressure per square inch, and very little energy.

Yet,, down there, a fish smaller than your finger-nail can exist down there.....odd, eh?

I think mermaids are some kind of fish or marine mammal that remotely resemble a human. I doubt they're really half fish, half human.

Yet,, down there, a fish smaller than your finger-nail can exist down there.....odd, eh?

What happened to him?

I miss his well thought out, properly constructed and remarkably informative posts.

no dick cheney is unable to kill inuyasha cause inuyasha is much more powerful

I LOVE MERMAIDS <3 they are pretty much all I enjoy drawing. Ehehe.. Inuyasha.

Post some!

I guess I will eventually

If mermaids exist, they are probably hideous creatures like HP Lovecraft's Deep Ones.

^"Uuhh...dude, can you get me some beer?"

I've always liked to believe them as being real as I've always had a fascination with mermaids ever since I saw The Little Mermaid, Splash and Aquamarine (can't believe I actually enjoyed that one). But I think there fiction and the only thing closest to them we have is Manatee's but then again who knows maybe mermaids do exist somewhere in the ocean.