Curious Kids: Are mermaids real?

In partnership with The Conversation, #Trending brings you Curious Kids, a series where we ask experts to answer questions from kids.

Are mermaids real? – Isobel, aged 12, Strathfield, Australia

Adam Turner, PhD student, University of Newcastle, Australia:

“Sadly, no. There are a lot of TV shows, movies and fairy tales about mermaids. Some of them are fun and lighthearted, others are designed to be scary.

Some people have claimed to have seen real mermaids, but these have been proven to be hoaxes.

One thing we do know is that mermaids have been a part of human storytelling around the world for a long time.

Thousands of years ago, in the ancient Neo-Sumerian Empire (located in the Middle East), the goddess Atargatis (also known as Derketo) was described as being half-woman and half-fish.

The ancient Roman writer Pliny described mermaids from Gaul (modern France, Luxembourg, Belgium and western Germany). He said there were a lot of people who washed up on the shore, who were covered in scales.

In the Middle Ages there were many depictions of mermaids common across Europe. They were depicted as human from the waist up and fish from the waist down.

Mermaids in the Middle Ages were viewed as dangerous and said to drown sailors. Many tales warned men to stay away from beautiful women and to be careful at sea.

When exploration became more widespread, sailors began to see animals such as the manatee and dugong more, often mistaking them for mermaids. Both animals have a long tail that resembles the traditional mermaid’s tail. The dugong and manatee are most commonly found in oceans near Africa and southeast Asia.

Sailors who saw the animal tails splashing often believed they were seeing a mermaid’s tail as she was diving under water.

While we have no proof that mermaids exist, there are many cultures with traditions of part humans who live in oceans or lakes. Many of the mermaids in western Europe and the Middle East are shown as part human and part fish, although in other cultures the fish tail may be a snake tail instead.

Very few mythical creatures can be found in so many diverse cultures across such a long period of time without changing.

So even if mermaids are not real, they will probably continue to lurk in the human imagination.”

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• To read the rest of Turner’s answer, go to theconversation.com