Some questions about mermaids?

Firstly, yes, I know they're not real so these questions will be practically impossible to answer but this is hypothetical, just pretend they are.

Ok, if you've been paying enough attention in bio, you'll know there are 5 different groups of vertebrates, two of these being mammals and fish. Which one would mermaids be? Fish because they have scales and can breath uinderwater (I'm pretty sure they don't come up for air), or mammals because, their human like appearance indicates this, they have a covering of hair on their uppper halfs (or at least on their heads) and they almost certainly 'suckle their young' as the female mermaids have breasts.

Next, are there freshwater and saltwater mermaids or do they just change depending on where they are like salmon?

Also, how do they reproduce?

I'm not asking these questions for any reason other than the fact that I am strangely fascinated by mermaids right now. Just give me your best shot at answering and I will be happy

Thanks:)

Some questions about mermaids?

I've seen mammals w/ scales - armadillo and pangolin.

I've never seen or heard of a fish w/ breasts.

I've never seen a pic of a mermaid w/ gills.

Since a mermaid has breasts we can assume she bears live young.

There are pics of mermen - much less common than pics of mermaids, probably because most seamen of yore were males.

We don't see pics of the mermaid's or merman's reproductive organs because, in the age of mermaids and mermen it was considered unacceptable to display them in public. Therefore we don't know the mechanisms/methods of reproduction. But it would be reasonable to assume they effected insemination in the manner of mammals and live bearing fish.

Therefore we can conclude that mermaids and mermen are mammals.

Mermaids and mermen may have been anadromous like the salmon. Or there could have been both salt and fresh water species. Or there could have been both scenarios. To my knowledge the is no historical references to support either situation. One thing is certain, they did inhabit both environments, as pictorial evidence exists for both environments.

Some questions about mermaids?

They are in the manatee group i do believe so. Oh they mate like em to

Some questions about mermaids?

Well I would think they would be mammals like dolphins and whales because of the breasts, and fact that they would produce milk. Therefore I would expect them to come up for air every few hours. Which would probably explain mermaid sightings...Mermaids sitting on an Island basking in the sun...fish don't do that. I think there would only be saltwater mermaids, again like dolphins and whales. You never hear of a mermaid in a lake or pond. I think they reproduce by the male depositing his sperm in to the female. I don't think they would lay eggs, instead they would have live births.

Some questions about mermaids?

Well, I think mermaids would fall under mammals because of the way the raise their young. Also, I think they occasionally go up, guessing they don't have gills. But then if they didn't, they'd be surfacing often, causing more people to see them, so i'm not sure. Assuming they don't have gills though, and they stay underwater, then why would they go up? Then they wouldn't be able to last on the surface for long, assuming they can't both breath underwater and live on land for long (but i think they need air). I'd say they're saltwater, but then they might also be adaptable. Maybe the can be in little hidden areas of waters and such. Good question. I'll star this.

Some questions about mermaids?

Mermaids are associated with the lost city of Atlantis, now historians believe that what Plato wrote about all those centuries ago wasn't the sinking of Atlantis, it was the destruction of the island of Crete and neighbouring islands that Plato though was Atlantis, but Plato also claimed that the story came from Egypt 9000 years earlier and he was only retelling the story when he wrote, Timaeus and Critias. Mermaids where thought by the Greeks to be servants of Poseidon, but maybe they were survivors of a long lost race of man that returned to the sea.

Some questions about mermaids?

They are otherworldly, neither mammal nor fish, there are many many varieties, and they live in all waters, including rain, ponds, puddles, even tears.

Some reproduce by stealing human children and transforming them into mermaids with sorcery, and others reproduce in a way similar to humans, and still others never die and never reproduce...it goes on and on...

Some questions about mermaids?

ON UR QUESTION WITHOUT READING THE WHOLE LIST I WOULD LIKE TO ASK U A QUESTION DO MERMAIDSA EXIST

Some questions about mermaids?

ok its pretend........ they are half fish and half human....... they would live in the ocean because it is deep.... yes they can nurse their baby, they will have babies by laying eggs like most fish (some like guppies) have live birth.

Some questions about mermaids?

Perhaps they're monotremes - like the platypus.

Some questions about mermaids?

i would like to read up on mermaids now

ne good sites?

and about plato's thoughts about the mer people and such

Some questions about mermaids?

Perahps mermaids produce asexually.