• Question: Do you wonder whether, if in the future, fish will be mermaids or evolve into something cool.

    Asked by springonion to Rupert, Ines, Ellen, Cedric, Carrie on 8 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      I think fish are already cool just as they are! I don’t think they’ll become mermaids because that combines a mammal with a fish but evolution could produce some other amazing traits. The fish that live in the deepest oceans are particularly weird and wonderful

    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      I have never sat and pondered this question before but I guess I just always imagine fish will be fish – doing their own fishy thing!

    • Photo: Ines Goncalves

      Ines Goncalves answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      A long, long time ago fish came out of the water and slowly evolved into amphibians, who then gave rise to reptiles, birds and mammals, plus minus many degrees to accuracy from my side. So if you thought fish weren’t that cool then think again! Plus, you get pregnant fish, fish that breathe air, fish that walk, fish that produce light and give you electric shocks. Who needs mermaids?? 😉 Mermaids were imagined by sailors who after spending a long time at sea, saw manatees swimming in front of the boat. I’ve seen a manatee… those sailors must have had a pretty bad sun stroke to look at manatees and see a beautiful women with fish tails!

    • Photo: Rupert Marshall

      Rupert Marshall answered on 9 Mar 2017:

      I actually read an article in the newspaper last week about someone who is a professional mermaid. But she just sows sequins onto a specially adapted wetsuit and swims around in this for films and photographs. Sounds fun though.
      There are things called “mermaid’s purses” – these are actually the egg cases of flat fish like sole, sharks and rays. You can quite often find them on the beach. There’s even a survey online so you can tell people if you find one – have a go next time you’re by the sea http://www.sharktrust.org/en/great_eggcase_hunt

    • Photo: Cedric Tan

      Cedric Tan answered on 12 Mar 2017:

      Very interesting question😊

      I’d say evolution is difficult to predict, and if there were mermaids, humans would be the first to capture and study them. The possibilities of having a mermaid is highly unlikely as it would have to go through the amphibian, reptile then mammal stage while retaining the fins. These are the steps in evolution that explains how mammals came about.

      otherwise maybe sea mammals could evolve the scaly fin but we haven’t seen that happening. The dugong is probably the closest resemblance to the mermaid, and might have explained the legend of the mermaid. Check this animal out!

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