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The translation of a song inspired by the legend of Lorelei, a maiden who threw herself over a cliff in despair of an unfaithful lover. She is said to have stayed there, on the cliff, singing and luring sailors to their death for the rest of her days. There is actually a cliff named Lorelei, and it overlooks the most narrow and deep part of the ravine. But people have been blaming the siren Lorelei for all of the deaths that have occurred there.

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This website tells the Greek origins of the myth of sirens. Myths are a funny thing, because some myths are seen just as stories and it is never questioned, while other myths are believed to be real. Both myths are written in the same way by the same people, yet people connect with some myths more than others and believe those to be true. When you've connected to something and have convinced yourself that is true, it is very hard to change that belief.

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si.ren n [ME, fr. MF & L; MF sereine, fr. LL sirena, fr. L siren, fr. Gk seiren] (14c) 1 often cap: any of a group of female and partly human creatures in Greek mythology that lured mariners to destruction by their singing 2 a: a woman who sings with bewitching sweetness b: temptress 3 a: an apparatus producing musical tones esp.

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This video explains the overview of the Aquatic Ape Theory, the theory that apes went through an aquatic stage during evolution. There is the argument that while we evolved from this stage, some creatures stayed in the water and are our modern day 'mermaids'. This theory has been disproved many times but apparently answers many questions that we still have about our evolution. It's easy to believe something like this because many people do not have the scientific knowledge to explain why exactly it wouldn't be plausible. Yes, this theory makes sense when laid out like this, but there might be other reasons to explain these things. Still, there are holes. There are still many answers that are not explained, as brought up in the 'Fishful Thinking' website like; how do they repopulate or excrete waste? I think one of the main reasons that this is believed so much is that the original idea came from a scientist; appealing to authority.

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A short video explaining the Aquatic Ape Theory

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This article explains what exactly was happening when sailors and pirates used to report seeing mermaids at sea. It is a perfect example of how we have to put our belief in scientific facts and statistics instead of our own perceptions of the world, which obviously can be misleading. We know now that the sightings can be chalked up to mirages, sea sickness, and scurvy. Who knows what people will have to explain what we are actually seeing years in the future?

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It's that time of year when manatees, the slow-moving aquatic mammals of the southeast coast of North America, start to migrate south into warmer waters-and often run into trouble.

In Florida, many of the languid giants-also called sea cows-are killed each year in boating collisions. (See also: " Record 829 Manatee Deaths in 2013 Puzzle Scientists.")

That's why November is also Manatee Awareness Month, which just this year became official in the state of Florida. Governor Rick Scott issued a proclamation to protect the state's official mammal as a "distinctive, valuable, and beloved natural resource."

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the American manatee-also known as the West Indian manatee-as vulnerable, with less than 10,000 individuals of that species left in the wild, according to its website. The population in Florida is estimated at 4,831, according to Save the Manatee. The manatee is a sirenian-an order of aquatic mammals that includes three species of manatees and their Pacific cousin, the dugong.

The ocean's largest herbivore, sirenians are also notable as the creatures that have long fueled mermaid myths and legend across cultures. Below we take a look at some of the most fascinating fables.

"Their Faces Had Some Masculine Traits"

Christopher Columbus, in his first journey to the Americas, caught a glimpse of three "mermaids" off the prow of his ship, writing in his journal:

"On the previous day [8 Jan 1493], when the Admiral went to the Rio del Oro [Haiti], he said he quite distinctly saw three mermaids, which rose well out of the sea; but they are not so beautiful as they are said to be, for their faces had some masculine traits." (Voyages of Columbus 218)."

Indeed, manatees and dugongs are both known to rise out of the sea like the alluring sirens of Greek myth, occasionally performing "tail stands" in shallow water. (See " Severe Scurvy Struck Christopher Columbus's Crew.")

With forelimbs containing five sets of fingerlike bones, and neck vertebrae that allow them to turn their heads, it's possible that manatees could be mistaken for humans from afar.

Following Columbus's expedition to the Americas, sideshows in Europe advertised "recently discovered" mermaids from the new world, often a deceased sirenian.

"A short time back, the skeleton of a mermaid, as it was called, was brought to Portsmouth, which had been shot in the vicinity of the island of Mombass. This was allowed to be submitted to the members of the Philosophical Society, when it proved to be the Dugong ... It was, if I recollect right, about six feet long: the lower dorsal vertebrae, with the broad caudal extremity, suggested the idea of a powerful fish-like termination; whilst the fore legs, from the scapula to the extremities of the phalanges, presented to the unskillful eye an exact resemblance to the bones of a small female arm." -Description of a mermaid in England's Magazine of Natural History.

Lady of the Sea

Thousands of miles from the seas Columbus sailed, the dugong-found in the Pacific Ocean-had been living in legend for centuries.

In 1959, 3,000-year-old cave drawings depicting dugongs-the word translates to "lady of the sea" in the Malay language-inside Malaysia's Tambun Cave were discovered. (Watch video: " Arabian Sea Cows Going Hungry?")

In Palau, a Pacific nation that extends across 340 islands, the dugong plays a central role in traditional ceremony and lore. Stories of young women transformed into these gentle grazers endure, and wooden storyboard carvings illustrate dugongs aiding fishermen lost at sea.

Olympia E. Morei, director of the Belau National Museum, says that "Palauans respected their environment and all the living things in that environment-trees, plants, all the animals and birds. We believed that dugong was once a human, according to the legend."

The animal's population across its range remains unknown, but up to 15 animals are likely killed in Palau each year for food, according to the Etpison Museum's Dugong Awareness Project.

"If the dugong were to be extinct [in Palau], we would, as a people, lose our connection to our environment and to our tradition," Morei said.

Without stronger conservation efforts, the gentle creatures that once inspired fantastic mermaid myths will themselves be consigned to mere legend.

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It's that time of year when manatees, the slow-moving aquatic mammals of the southeast coast of North America, start to migrate south into warmer waters-and often run into trouble. In Florida, many of the languid giants-also called sea cows-are killed each year in boating collisions.

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This website is a list of reasons why mermaids could not physically exist- or if they did, that would actually look similar to manatees and not like the idealized beautiful maidens we have pictured through our lives. This website actually has the credentials of the author, details from her career and education, rather than the other websites which just used appeal of authority by saying the vague title 'scientists'. She talks about real applicable issues that if you are blinded by your wanting to believe, you might never have thought about, such as temperature, excretion of waste, and reproduction. She uses numbers, graphs, and actual scientific facts to back up her story, rather than theories and stretches of the imagination.

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This guest post is brought to you by Sheanna Steingass. Shea is a graduate student at Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute studying the behavioral ecology of pinnipeds. She is also author of Oregonbeachcomber.com, a marine debris blog focusing on the Pacific Northwest.
"Mermaids are real- I saw it on Animal Planet!"

No, you didn't. That 'documentary' was in fact a new generation of fictional media called a 'mockumentary', or as Animal Planet puts it, 'docudrama.' It's like "This is Spinal Tap" for marine biology. And they admit that. http://realscreen.com/2013/08/07/discovery-defends-shark-week-special/ However, people took the show so seriously that in order to deal with massive amounts of inquiries, NOAA had to issue an official statement that, to their knowledge, mermaids aren't real. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mermaids.html

A critical look at the Animal Planet 'docudrama' reveals abominable (excuse the pun) CGI, combined with scripted interviews with actors. And who can blame them? People love mermaids, they delivered, and they made a ton of money. In fact, it worked so well that they produced another fictional (FICTIONAL!) docudrama, "Megalodon" for Shark Week.

Most scientists wouldn't touch the subject of mermaids with a ten foot pole- I am going full contact.
Why couldn't mermaids exist? Here are 5 reasons.
1: They would freeze to death. Quickly, and matter what ocean. Especially those skinny Ariel/Disney types. The truth is, the human-like body form is not made for surviving long periods in the water. Check this out:

Sure, there are areas of the ocean that are above 70 degrees- on the SURFACE. Assuming mermaids would want to live out in the bottom of the open ocean, it is just too cold for them. And, once you get down a few meters, water temperature drops dramatically.

So what would a cold-hardy mermaid look like? 1: really hairy, or 2: really fat. Or: 3: both.

The first option would to look like a marine mammals, whose thick blubber layers protect them from cold, dark waters. What of smaller animals? The second option for thermoregulation is a thick coat of hair- such as that of Enhydra lutra¸ or the sea otter. The sea otter has more than 900,000 hairs per square inch (Kuhn et al. 2010). The problem? Otters have to groom themselves often to keep their hair filled with air, and not with water (Fish et al. 2002). Very inconvenient if you are an elusive denizen of the deep.

And those long slender arms? They would freeze off. Marine mammals have fusiform bodies (reducing surface area-to- volume ratio) and short appendages that can withstand reduced bloodflow and heat.

So, essentially, you would end up with a very hairy or obese mermaid with stubby arms.

2: You can't pick and choose...body parts Picture your typical mermaid- a graceful female with the scaled tail of a fish. Mammals are defined by being warm-blooded and having hair; fish do not. An animal cannot have both human and fish-defining characteristics- it's just all wrong, evolutionarily speaking. The human line of evolution is fairly well-mapped. Prior to the development of hominids, humans and fish are so far branching down the evolutionary tree that the first marsupial mammals appeared during the Jurassic period 173 million years ago (Kumar and Hedges 1998).

Additionally, the idea that somehow a human bred with a fish and produced viable, virile offspring is just ridiculous. Which brings us to the next point...

3: They would go extinct. How do mermaids reproduce? They are human down to the waist, after all. Well, there are two options for that. First, they could do it human-style. Which means that they'd have to get it on the mammalian way- with internal fertilization. But what if you have fish parts down there? Most fish reproduce externally- with females depositing eggs in the environment and males fertilizing them.

Could mermaids lay eggs? Think again! The only mammals that produce eggs are the echidna and platypus- the monotremes of the class Mammalia. And these guys don't have any teeth, look nothing like a human, and really would make a poor excuse for a mermaid.

Oh, and don't even get me started on sex ratio. As far as I can tell, there are waaaay more mer maids than mer men.

4: They would be constipated. While we're talking about plumbing, the fish and mammal digestive processes are so very different, they cannot jive. Mammals digest food via complex digestive tracts, which produce solid waste and urine- a sterile byproduct composed mostly of water and waste, salts, and proteins. Fish kidneys produce ammonia- which is expelled via their gills. Yep, they essentially pee through their gills. ( http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/633ureacycle.html)

As for digesting food, where humans have well-developed large and small intestines, fish have one simple intestine.

So really, you can't have an animal with a mammalian digestive tract and a fish-designed hind end. Even more tellingly- can you point out the butt on a mermaid? Didn't think so.

5: We have no physical evidence. Really. If the existence of such a creature were true, it would literally change the face of science- and why would it be covered up if it were a real animal? That makes for a good plotline, but doesn't make any logical sense- what global conspiracy would cover these things up? If mermaids existed, the scientific world would be studying them endlessly, and grant money would fall like rain during monsoon season. The world would know.

So there you have it- mermaids would be very cold, sterile, constipated, and probably extinct, which seems pretty miserable to me. So the next time you see something you think looks too good to be real, think again - because it probably is.

Literature Cited

Kumar, S., and S. B. Hedges. 1998. A molecular timescale for vertebrate evolution. Nature 392:917-920.

Fish, F. E., Smelstoys, J., Baudinette, R. V., & Reynolds, P. S. (2002). Fur doesn't fly, it floats: buoyancy of pelage in semi-aquatic mammals. Aquatic Mammals, 28(2), 103-112.

Craig McClain is the Executive Director of the Lousiana University Marine Consortium. He has conducted deep-sea research for 20 years and published over 50 papers in the area. He has participated in and led dozens of oceanographic expeditions taken him to the Antarctic and the most remote regions of the Pacific and Atlantic. Craig's research focuses on how energy drives the biology of marine invertebrates from individuals to ecosystems, specifically, seeking to uncover how organisms are adapted to different levels of carbon availability, i.e. food, and how this determines the kinds and number of species in different parts of the oceans. Additionally, Craig is obsessed with the size of things. Sometimes this translated into actually scientific research. Craig's research has been featured on National Public Radio, Discovery Channel, Fox News, National Geographic and ABC News. In addition to his scientific research, Craig also advocates the need for scientists to connect with the public and is the founder and chief editor of the acclaimed Deep-Sea News (http://deepseanews.com/), a popular ocean-themed blog that has won numerous awards. His writing has been featured in Cosmos, Science Illustrated, American Scientist, Wired, Mental Floss, and the Open Lab: The Best Science Writing on the Web.

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Fishful Thinking: Five Reasons why Mermaids Can't Physically Exist

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This guest post is brought to you by Sheanna Steingass. Shea is a graduate student at Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute studying the behavioral ecology of pinnipeds. She is also author of Oregonbeachcomber.com, a marine debris blog focusing on the Pacific Northwest. "Mermaids ar

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Mermaids exist in almost every mythology and culture around the world. They vary in stories and appearances so much that even though there have been sightings going back hundreds of years, it's still not a good indication that mermaids actually exist.

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Not all mermaids are the shimmering versions of femininity often seen in pop culture. In fact, those mermaids-which seem to be a combination of the Melusine and Greek mythology-barely skim the surface of this fish-human legend. Many countries and culture have their own versions of mermaids, from a snake water goddess to a fish with a monkey mouth. Some are benevolent, some ambivalent, and many are openly hostile to the poor humans who cross their paths.

1. JAPAN // NINGYO

Vastly different than the Western version of a beautiful mermaid, this monster found in Japanese folklore is described as a giant fish with a human face and a monkey's mouth, and sometimes even horns and fangs. In a serious conflict of interest, anyone who eats the Ningyo will have eternal youth and beauty -but catching one often brings terrible storms and misfortune to entire villages.

2. SCOTLAND AND ORKNEY ISLANDS // SELKIE

Selkies are gentle creatures who live their lives as seals while in the water and shed their skin to become human on land, but they're frequently equated with mermaids because in Gaelic stories they are associated with maighdeann-mhara, or "maid of the sea." Selkie legends usually end in tragedy; the folktales almost inevitably feature a selkie's sealskin getting stolen and the selkie getting married and having children with a human, only to later find its old sealskin and get called back to the sea.

3. AFRICA // MAMI WATA

The "water spirit" Mami Wata is sometimes described as a mermaid, sometimes as a snake charmer, and occasionally as a combination of both. Found in many African folk stories, the legend of Mami Wata made its way to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade. Although she can sometimes take human form, she is never fully human. She is closely associated with healing, fertility, and sex.

4. BRAZIL // IARA

The idea of mermaids in Brazil comes from the tale of Iara, the "Lady of the Waters." Iara was originally known as a water snake, but through folklore became an immortal woman with green eyes and brown skin who was known lure sailors to her underwater palace, where they became her lovers. Iara is blamed for many accidents in the Amazon, especially those where men disappear.

5. NEW ZEALAND // MARAKIHAU

Most tales of mermaids are passed down through spoken tales and pictures-and in New Zealand's Maori folklore, they are also seen in carvings. A little more intense than a mermaid, the Marakihau is a taniwha (guardian) of the sea. It has a human head and the body of a very long fish, as well as a long, tubular tongue that is often blamed for destroying canoes and swallowing large quantities of fish.

6. FRANCE // MELUSINE

A feminine spirit found in many medieval European folk stories, the Melusine has a serpentine tail and occasionally sports wings. France, Germany, Luxembourg and Albania all have varying tales of Melusine, but the general legend describes her as a willful maiden who attempts revenge on her father on behalf of her mother, only to be punished by her mother with a serpent's tail. Melusine is especially connected with France as the royal French house of Lusignan claimed to be decedents of her. Images of this sea fairy can be seen over the world-especially on the coffee cups of Starbucks, which has a Melusine-like mermaid as its logo.

7. IRELAND // MERROW

A magical cap called a cohuleen druith enables merrows to live under the water. Female merrows, with their long green hair, are similar to traditional sirens-the beautiful, half-human fish of mythology. Male merrows, however, are considered hideous and frightening, more fish than man. And they're cruel-so cruel that merrow women were said to often have relationships with human men. Their offspring might have scales and webbing between their fingers. Merrows frequently become tired of the land and try to find a way to return to the sea -with or without their human family.

8. RUSSIA // RUSALKA

Often translated as "mermaid," these water nymphs of Slavic myth were originally considered benevolent because they came out of the water in the spring to water crops. But the mythology also has a darker side: Rusalka are thought to be the spirits of girls who died violently, and thus they frequently lure men and children to their own watery deaths. Their translucent skin gives them a ghost-like appearance, and they'll sometimes use their long hair to trap and entangle their victims.

9. NORWAY AND ORKNEY ISLANDS // FINFOLK

Probably the least like a traditional version of a mermaid, finfolk are shape-shifters of the sea. Considered nomads who can alternate between living on land and at their ancestral home- Finfolkaheem-finfolk tend to have an antagonistic relationship with humans. They often abduct humans for their spouses, making them more servant than partner. Finfolk also have an affinity for silver, and one might be able to escape their grasp by throwing a silver coin their way.

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Not all mermaids are the shimmering versions of femininity often seen in pop culture. In fact, those mermaids-which seem to be a combination of the Melusine and Greek mythology-barely skim the surface of this fish-human legend. Many countries and culture have their own versions of mermaids, from a snake water goddess to a fish with a monkey mouth.

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This is a video of a 'mermaid sighting' published by animal planet. When first watching the video, it looks pretty realistic. The camera was not of the best quality, and they were so far from the mermaid that it technically could have just been a person in a mermaid tail. But the scenario seemed pretty realistic. I found it more believable than other sighting videos I saw as there wasn't a whole crazy conspiracy theory attached, and it wasn't so in your face. There was no CGI or gore. If a mermaid sighting were to actually happen, this is probably what it would look like. But then I looked further into the video, and found this website. I found a natgeo video and other pieces of proof that I was originally going to include into this project until I found out that they were all posted by animal planet. Animal Planet was producing a documentary on mermaids. Researching the documentary, I found out that it was actually fake. Animal Planet called it a "docudrama." The US government actually had to release a public statement saying that mermaids were not actually real, as people were going crazy. It's amazing how just because something is in a documentary, even if there is a written credit saying that it was fake and just a look of what it MIGHT be like if mermaids were real, people will still believe it. It comes from a pretty reliable source, it is conducted professionally, and is put on TV, so it must be true, right? I can no longer use any of these in an argument towards mermaid existence because Animal Planet has a monetary motive for posting all of these videos, which make them less credible.

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Mermaids | Watch Full Episodes & More! - Animal Planet

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Mermaids Official Site. Watch Full Episodes, Get Behind the Scenes, Meet the Cast, and much more. Stream Mermaids FREE with Your TV Subscription!

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This website sources the first documentations of sirens in ancient literature, going back to 1CE. Most stories are just the same stories that have always been told since the beginning of time, recycled and renewed. These are the first time stories of mermaids have been documented, but we keep seeming to come back to mermaids. It seems to be one of the more popular story tropes throughout history. This is very dangerous, as sometimes we confuse stories having been around for a very long time with stories having some truthful foundations.

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The siren is a deadly creature, half human, half bird or fish. Early sources say the siren is human (always female) from the head to the navel, and bird from the waist down. Later sources say that the siren is fish from the waist down, like a mermaid. They usually have wings.

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Artwork of mermaids and sirens exist all throughout history. They exist in pages like these of literature books, to pottery, to murals, to ancient sculptures, to paintings, modern art and logos. Images and perceptions get distorted as time goes on. Artwork is probably the main reason for so many false sightings.

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Mermaids are one of the most popular fantasy beings for artwork. People respond to it. Artwork is just another form of escaping reality. So many people are interested in the ocean. They know that most of it is undiscovered, which makes it all the more plausible that a mythological creature could be residing in the depths of the sea. From an artist's standpoint, it is difficult to merge different animals bodies together in a convincing way. Water can also be very difficult to depict. But you also have so much freedom. There are so many myths and they go in so many directions. There have been so many stories and movies that you could manipulate this vague concept of a creature into almost anything. Art and modern literature are our societies way of keeping the myth (and therefore, the belief), alive.

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There are many diagrams with an artist's interpretation of what a mermaid's skeleton might look like. It is important to realize that it is just art and not science. Just because some bones look like they could connect does not mean that the nervous system and everything else would match up, or any life dependant activities could still work.

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This video shows a supposed sighting of a group of mermaids swimming in the ocean. However, it is actually footage of a stampede of dolphins. I believe this is a case of emotional connection. Someone found this video, where it was posted with the title 'dolphins' on a dolphin Youtube channel, yet they convinced themselves that these creatures were actually mermaids. Yes, from the video, it does look like they could be mermaids. But as the video states, it is easily explained by the dolphin's fins. No skeptic would have seen this video titled 'dolphins' and believed that they were mermaids. This was someone who believes in mermaids seeing what they want to see.

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People With Superpowers Caught On Camera & Spotted In Real Life !

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This drone footage has been featured in many YouTube videos that claim it shows real mermaids caught on tape. These videos make the claim that the humanoid figures seen swimming in the footage are mermaids that have been caught on tape by the drone.