Do mermaids really exist? the fascinating theory of the aquatic humanoids
Some have wondered if there may be a kernel of truth behind mermaid legends. Could there really be intelligent aquatic humanoids, distant relatives of man, who have developed their evolutionary path by adapting to living in the depths of the ocean and who have developed a complex society in which they live hidden out of fear of their human relatives?
Around 2013 NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), the federal oceanographic agency of the United States, felt the need to officially declare that mermaids do not exist!
“Mermaids of the sea, half human, half fish, are legendary marine creatures that have been told about since time immemorial,” NOAA wrote on its website.
But the NOAA sortie is not random: it was released following the broadcast of an interesting program by Animal Planet entitled: "Mermaids, the body found", with the subtitle "a kernel of truth that lives under the legend of the mythical sirens”.
It was actually a docu-fiction, in which, as the broadcaster specified, science was used "as a springboard towards the imagination". But evidently many viewers took it for a documentary and a few days later letters arrived at the oceanographic institute asking for scientific explanations. So here is the clarification: Despite the premises, "no evidence of the existence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found."
Yet, not everyone agrees. There are numerous scientists who have advanced interesting theories on the existence, in man's evolutionary past, of the "aquatic ape", that is, of an aquatic ancestor in common between hominids and apes.
And there would also be numerous testimonies from those who claim to have seen "aquatic humanoids" who are still alive today. According to conspiracy theorists, the American Government (in this case NOAA) would be aware of these creatures and would even be staging a sensational cover-up (which would also justify the NOAA statement) to hide the fact of being in possession of the body of a mermaid.
Proof of this fact would be the famous oceanic “bloop” sound recorded in the depths of the Pacific Ocean by NOAA in the late 1990s. Theories? Fantasies? The ingredients to intrigue the Navigator are all there.
A scientific basis for the legend?
“Once upon a time there was a little mermaid who lived in a wonderful underwater world. One day, eager to meet the people of the mainland, she ventured onto the surface… ”. This is the incipit of the children's story from which Disney based the famous cartoon "The Little Mermaid".
Yet, it is a story told throughout the world, the story of a legendary creature and one that is mentioned in the mythologies of almost every human culture. People from all continents report having had contact with these half-man, half-fish beings, all describing the same mythical animal.
Some have wondered if there may be a kernel of truth behind these legends. Could there really be intelligent aquatic humanoids, distant relatives of man, who have developed their evolutionary path by adapting to living in the depths of the ocean and who have developed a complex society in which they live hidden out of fear of their human relatives? This is what the authors of a documentary filmed for the Animal Planet TV station asked themselves: “Mermaids, the body found”.
The docu-fiction evaluates a possibility based on a radical scientific theory – the “aquatic ape” theory – which claims that humans went through an amphibious phase in their evolutionary path.
Suddenly, the great coastal floods of millions of years ago forced a group of our ancestors to push inland, definitively adapting to the mainland, giving life to the species of arboreal primates, while another group, perhaps driven by the need to find food, began to go deeper and deeper into the sea, adapting to aquatic life.
After this adaptation, a group of primates would have returned to land, retaining some of the characteristics developed in the marine environment, while another group would have permanently adapted to the marine environment.
So, while we evolved into terrestrial humans, our aquatic relatives would have evolved into amphibious humans, very similar to the legendary mermaid. Some authors support the opposite version of the theory, namely that the common ancestor was completely aquatic and that some groups, driven by the need to find food, moved onto land until they were completely adapted to breathing oxygen in the gaseous state. In any case, the substance does not change.
As evidence to support the theory, the authors of the documentary highlight the notable differences found between humans and other primates. Indeed, some characteristics make it much more similar to marine mammals than to terrestrial primates. These are the fundamental distinctive signs:
- loss of skin hair (hair creates resistance in water);
- the instinctive ability to swim (newborn children are already able to swim);
- subcutaneous fat (for insulation from cold water);
- breath control (some humans are able to hold their breath for up to 20 minutes, longer than any other land animal);
- a highly developed brain, thanks to a diet rich in seafood;
The history of the “aquatic ape” theory
Over time, several authors have dedicated themselves to the aquatic ape theory. In a 1942 book, German biologist Max Westenhofer hypothesized that the earliest stages of human evolution occurred near water. Thus he writes: “Postulating an aquatic way of life at an early stage in human evolution is a tenable hypothesis, for which further investigation and evidence can be produced.”
But the true father of the theory is the marine biologist Alister Hardy who, already in 1930, had hypothesized that human beings may have had aquatic ancestors. But only in 1960 did he decide to publicize his theory. The occasion was a speech given to the British Sub-Aqua Club in Brighton on 5 March 1960.
Hardy's thesis is based on the belief that a group of these primitive monkeys, forced by competition with their peers and by the scarcity of food, reached the shores of the sea to hunt for crustaceans, molluscs, sea urchins, etc., in shallow waters off the coast.
The biologist supposes that these aquatic proto-apes, driven by the need to remain underwater for a long time - just as has happened for many other groups of mammals - have adapted to the aquatic environment to the point of remaining in water for relatively long periods, if not definitively. Hardy definitively explained his ideas in an article that appeared in New Scientist on 17 March 1960.
After the publication of the article, the theory enjoyed some interest for some time, but was progressively ignored by the scientific community. In 1967, the hypothesis was evoked by Desmond Morris in his book "The Naked Ape", in which the use of the term "aquatic ape" is found for the first time.
The writer Elaine Morgan, after reading Morris's book, became the main supporter and promoter of the theory. In the following 40 years of her career, the writer dedicated 6 books to the popularization of Hardy's hypothesis.
In 1987, a scientific symposium was held in Valkenburg, Holland, to discuss the validity of the Aquatic Ape theory. From the conference proceedings – published in 1991 with the title “Aquatic Ape: Fact or fiction?” – emerges that scientists did not feel like supporting the idea that man's ancestors were aquatic, but that there is some evidence that they had developed swimming skills to feed in rivers and in lakes, with the result that modern homo sapiens can enjoy short periods of time freediving.
This is just one of the "weak" versions of the theory, used by researchers to explain some human characteristics that are still shrouded in mystery, such as the loss of skin hair, the ability to apnea, subcutaneous fat and the instinctive ability of newborns to swim.
Although the Aquatic Ape hypothesis explains the emergence of these characteristics quite well, most paleoanthropologists tend to reject the theory, not accepting it among the main explanations of human evolution.
An extreme reading of Hardy's theory has led some independent researchers to hypothesize the current existence of intelligent aquatic humanoids living in complex societies at the bottom of the ocean. The existence of these shy creatures would be at the origin of the legends about mermaids, also praised by Homer in his Odyssey. But is it possible to hypothesize the existence of these Aquatic Humanoids? Could there be some evidence?
Ancient testimonies
The history of mermaids is not as recent as you think. The legend is usually traced back to the tales of drunken sailors of the 1500s, who, stunned by the fumes of rum and loneliness, could easily have mistaken a dolphin or a whale for a beautiful and sinuous mermaid.
Indeed, some cave paintings make us think that human awareness of mermaids is much older. The oldest representations of mermaids exist in a sandstone cave in Egypt. On the walls of the cave are represented human creatures with tails, equipped with spears and nets.
Even in recent times there have been numerous testimonies from fishermen. In many cases, there are stories of the recovery of large aquatic animals completely impaled with spears and knives of unknown origin. In some testimonies from the beginning of the century it is possible to see the amazement and bewilderment of the sailors.
A strange sound from the bottom of the ocean
In the summer of 1997, NOAA, with the help of an equatorial hydrophone, repeatedly recorded a mysterious sound coming from the depths of the Pacific Ocean. The sound rapidly increased in frequency for about a minute, and was of sufficient amplitude to be heard by sensors at a distance of more than 5,000 kilometers.
The origin of the sound – christened “The Bloop” – is, as NOAA admits, of unknown origin. According to some, this sound could be evidence of the existence of an unknown underwater species.
The team of Paul Robertson, a former NOAA employee, was investigating the unexplained mass strandings of whales in 2007. When examining tissue samples from the bodies of some whales, the researchers realized that the mammals had been damaged by particularly powerful sonars, used in various parts of the world during naval exercises.
Marine noise pollution is a phenomenon that has seen a great increase in recent years. The new Sonar technology used both for mapping the ocean floor and for identifying underwater targets, emits sound vibrations perceptible up to hundreds of kilometers away.
When a more sensitive species, such as whales or dolphins, finds itself close to the emission of the noise, it suffers a real trauma that pushes it into a hasty escape, which is fatal when it is directed towards the surface of the sea. According to one study, the medium-frequency impact of a military sonar on the hearing of a whale is equivalent to that of a jet engine taking off on the hearing of a human being three meters away.
The conclusion reached by marine scientists is that the sound waves emitted by the sonars were so powerful that they frightened those animals with such sensitive hearing. In an attempt to escape the barrage of sound waves, the mammals had pushed into water too shallow to support their enormous size, and ended up running aground.
To try to prove this theory, Robertson and his team used recordings from a deep hydrophone. It was precisely on those recordings that they heard the “bloop” for the first time.
Using audio software, the researchers were able to isolate the sound of an unknown creature mixed with the sounds of whales and dolphins. After more careful analysis, the researchers had the impression that these unknown creatures were communicating with the mammals, perhaps with the intention of saving them from the sonar noise.
The body found
Still in 2013 there was another mass stranding in South Africa. Even in that area the researchers recorded similar sounds on their devices. Robertson and his team went there to investigate.
On the beach were the remains of an unknown creature inside the stomach of a huge white shark. While examining the shark, the researchers noticed a sort of dagger stuck in the side of the shark's mouth.
How did that dagger get there? Once they had removed all the parts from the shark's stomach, they began to carefully study the remains to understand what it was. Inside they found the creature's head, an almost complete hand, a long tail-fin type bone.
Furthermore, the researchers also found a strange tool with a hole in it. At first they didn't understand what it was, but then they remembered the dagger in the shark's mouth. The object appeared to be a perfect knife case made from a thing or a backbone of some large fish. But who could have produced such an object?
Some of the researchers became convinced that they were faced with a sort of "intelligent aquatic hominid", a mermaid! Now all the mysterious spears and knives found in the bodies of numerous fish in the ocean made sense.
A few days later, as the team was about to return to the United States, the American military confiscated the creature's remains and the research results. It appears that the government had been studying the phenomenon for a long time and had used Robertson and his team to get the information he was looking for. The only thing they left was the recording of the famous “bloop”.
The scientists were shocked that they had seized all the results obtained with years of hard work, but the recordings were the real treasure to be preserved. Thanks to them, they understood that mermaids were able to communicate with dolphins and whales.
This is the first and only time that we have evidence of interspecies communication. As some know, in some countries, dolphins help human fishermen catch fish, in exchange for a generous portion of the spoils! Where did dolphins learn to do this?
In conclusion
In a recent interview, Robertson said he doesn't know whether mermaids exist or not, unlike one of his colleagues who thinks they exist and that we just need to find them. According to Robertson, if mermaids exist and have survived for so long it is because they know how to hide.
The only thing the researchers are convinced of is that they never want to contribute to the search for mermaids again: "I don't think that human beings would be able to coexist with mermaids without exterminating them." The researcher is still trying to get a ban on the development and testing of Sonar weapons to save whales, dolphins and mermaids.
Personally I have never believed in mermaids, yet this documentary makes me understand that the depths of the ocean are truly the frontier of human exploration. As is often said, we know the surface of the Moon better than the depths of the sea.
Whether it is mermaids or not, we must take note that at the bottom of the ocean there are unknown and mysterious species that we do not yet know and that we hope not to encounter so as not to exterminate them (to quote Robertson).
