How many giant squid have been seen by humans? Who says the mermaids would have to be plentiful and with civilizations and such? Entirely possible that there is something down there that resembles what we would think of as mermaids.
If an apelike creature went inti the ocean and evolved it would lose the hands. Hands would only lead to massive predation. Being able to pick shit up in the ocean is not going to help much unless it's sharp. No advanced civilization can build anything underwater unless they can assemble materials on land. Every mammal species in the ocean has flippers. Mermaids would have them too. A deep sea mammal? Unlikely. The pressures down in the icean are immense so evolving in a low pressure environment to live in a high pressure one is unlikely to happen. Whales can dive to the deep sea but they are large. Large hearts and lungs plus tons of blubber. Mermaids would be huge. Mammals need oxygen. Dont even say they could have gills. Mammals need lungs because gills will not provide us with the neccessary oxygen intake so deep sea living when you need air is unlikely. There are no mermaids unless manatees evolved from apes.
This is not necessarily true. If they moved into the ocean after learning to make tools, hypothetically they could have invented something to fend off monsters. Something like a large stick with a sharp end maybe? Or 3 sharp ends? You said "unless its sharp". You are aware that in the ocean you have access to coral, and shells? It is possible an aquatic race evolved into an amphibian race first, learned to live in lakes and small seas; then for some reason they had to go deep. Perhaps they moved in prepared? Well, no. They could easily build things. But idk if they would ever discover electricity. A merfolk civilization would probly be permanently stone age, perhaps bronze/iron age if they were able to utilize lava effectively. Whales are deep sea mamals that came from land. If hands were useful to merfolk, they would keep them. See above That's not how it works. Evolution happens because they were forced into an environment, and only the survivors lived on. In this case, only merfolk that could survive the pressure of the deep could make it. Not necessarily. You are making the assumption all deep sea mamals would be like whales and that's the only possible way. We don't know what's possible. That's why scientists have to test things to find out if its possible. A: so do fish B:fish evolved lungs and turned into humans. Why can humans evolve gills? Their bodies could adapt to use less oxygen. They could evolve bigger better circulatory systems. They necessarily need to be like a whale. Whales just eneded up that way randomly and worked out well. That doesn't mean other ways can't exist. I agree that mermaids probly don't exist. But not for the same reasons. hey man. ba-a-a-ack off. I can be a sheep all I want!
Oxygen needs of fish and mammals are different that's why gills wont work for mammals. Whales dont live in the deep sea. Some feed there because they know a good food source is there that fuels theur growth. They did not evolve there or in response to the pressures in the deep sea. There bodies adapted in some ways, sure, but guess what? It still doesn't change the fact that they needed to get freakin huge and develop many layers of fat to dive deep down. Any merfolk woukd need to do the same. Do you know what happens to some deep sea creatures when brought to the surface? They die. Hands suck underwater. Good luck catching fish with your spear that you somehow made with no trees. Sure there are coral but id like to see a merperson break one off using their hands. Sure original people had the same priblem with rocks but at least we have an abundance of available broken rock. Reefs are fragile. Merpeople would destroy the reef making tools to hunt in the reef. Also, lava? How the fuck? Lava cools in water and turns into rock. Even if they managed to use it above ground how would they contain it? Lava is hot as all hell. I would love to see a sea mammal hang out next to some lava too. How would they mine? Even if they had the mental capacity to make tools, what would they use? How would they refine ore underwater? Hands also produce drag so unless they turn into flippers they are useless and only serve to make you easy pickings for sharks at night. Add in, how would they protect themselves from sharks? Seals sleep on land, whales have size, dolphins have humbers and speed, otters sleep in kelp. Even if merpeople somehow started to evolve they wouldnt survive looking anything remotely like us. Your post essentially is saying the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Sure there are mysteries but let's not be irrational. There are some constants that cannot be disputed.
I am open to all possibilites in this world, however with a little bit of logic and deduction. The reason why Mermaids don't exist (half human, half aquatic fish creatures) is because Humans are mammals that evolved from monkey and ape like creatures of the past. These creatures were strict land dwellers. Swimming was not a knowledge these old land dwellers possesed. Therefore, they couldn't have evolved to become Mermaids, because they didn't know how to swim. You can't go from A -> C , if you don't know how to complete B
While I dont believe in mermaids the logic is faulty. You assume apes cant learn to swim and dive when they can.
I'm sure in this day & age a chimp or some intelligent species of monkey can be taught to swim , but what mammal had knowledge of swimming thousands, millions of years ago ? None. And even if an ape or chimp fell out of a tree and into water, was able to splash around survive and get out....it was purely survival. The animal is designed to be above land, and not in the water.Just look at the physiology of monkeys past and present. Even if monkeys of the past had the knowlede of swimming , the predators that existed in the sea would have devoured any mammal thinking it could swim (there are exceptions, i know, but when i talk about mamalls in my post i'm talking purely apes and monkeys...since this is what a mermaid would have evolved from and be related to) Why? Physiology...there is no way any monkey or ape could compete with big predatory fish, giants reptiles...you name it. Therefore they will stick to the habitat to which they are designed and evolved to, which is solid ground & trees.
Learning to swim or adapt to areas that have water, are natural. Saying this, and assuming that apes/monkeys could actually thrive in in any real body of water at that period in time is as vvv8 essentially put it, impossible. Isn't this also the time period where Megalodon was thriving? FUCK. ANY. BODY. OF. WATER.
Just like mammals taking over on land once the big predators left mammals could enter the water. First in shallows then deeper as abilities increased. Factors such as minimal food on land and lack of predators that could hunt them would allow them to evolve just like other mammals who entered the sea and became dolphins, whales, otters, manatees etc.. Monkeys and apes will learn to swim if they feel safe and have a reason to such as food or play they just dont because of predators. Remove the competition during an extinction event and things will progress. It didnt happen because apes and monkeys are land creatures and need more than fish to survive. Perhaps if one was purely a carnivore but they are not. Heck an ape body would find it hard to catch fish because they are not strong swimmers so unlikely they would try too hard. Catching one would be luck.
you are some-what right about diet, but think about it this way. There are vegetarians , there are meat eaters. I'm sure a monkey or ape could live off of an ocean diet. Essentially he needs carbs, fat, and protein along with macro nutrients which could be found in some way shape or form in the ocean Lets not forget crocodiles are from the dinosaur age, direct decedents. There are also other predators which have existed throughout time. Monkeys, at any point in time, always had threats in the ocean which stopped them from dominating it. They simply didn't have the initial physiology , along with enough time to be able to evolve to become mermaids.
They did not disappear the sane way they didnt from land but im saying with the as big as fycking building predators gone opportunities could have arisen in some areas. Sharks would always be a problem but if whales did it when they were around when they are gone things could have happened somehow. Dont have anything to say other than monkeys and apes would have a hard time catching the food in the first place to get all the necessary nutrients. That's something I tried to say in my post. Even if they could only eat sea creatures theyd be fucked because if the way they are built. They'd give up trying to catch anything substantial. So since this was originally about them swimming I think we should just leave it at they can swim but theyd be fucked for trying in the long run even if things were not trying to eat them.
Your response is extremely arrogant and you seem to be missing the point. The point is you don't know. Mermaids very well could exist. You can't just say its impossible because x,y,z. you are also implying a lot of things that you don't know. For example. I strongly disagree that an aquatic lifeform couldn't use hands. In fact one has something similar. hey man. ba-a-a-ack off. I can be a sheep all I want!
But x, y, z is a logical reasoning process lol Only think I can think of with anything similar to hands would be sea otters but the arms would still be a literal drag. Grasping would be useful but a large mammal would need to eat a lot more than clams and urchins. A large mammal wouldnt be throwing things underwater. I can see where grasping would be useful once you caught something but then thise pesky arms dragging on you and you cant even make fast turns. Large mammals would need to catch many fast moving fish and arms would screw that up. Unless mermaids are small like otters and can survive on the ecosystem similiar to a kelp bed I doubt they exist. So mermaids evolved from monkeys. Lets say that is entirely possible but then we run into the issues I discussed with -martyr and vvv8
Troll? what? How can you not see the error in logic here? It is IMPOSSIBLE to prove a negative... The best you can say is no one has ever seen a mermaid and give an educated guess that they don't exist. Its arrogant to assume you know they can't exist hey man. ba-a-a-ack off. I can be a sheep all I want!
We logically deduced that a mermaid that came from mammals cannot possibly exist, where have you been man? Are you talking about the same thing we are ?
No. You logically inferred that their existence is unlikely. hey man. ba-a-a-ack off. I can be a sheep all I want!