It has two front flippers with three toenails. The manatee is unusual among mammals in having just six cervical vertebrae, a number that may be due to mutations in the homeotic genes. Though they may seem like cumbersome creatures, manatees can swim quickly and gracefully. ... Mermaid Sightings Throughout History | Mermaids - Duration: 2:28. This word is taken from the story of the Sirens, who were mermaid-like creatures for which manatees have been mistaken by early explorers like Christopher Columbus! A manatee looks like a fish but it is not a fish, it is a mammal.

Long hair would get in the way and slow her down, so she’d either have short hair or be … 136 162 10.

Sign in to make your opinion count. 145 164 9. They are bulky, have a lolling nature, and are often eaten by other animals. The manatee's vaguely human-like face is sometimes described as one only a mother could love. She has "the most complex array of mermaid … Manatee. Mermaid Fairytale. What does this look like? 635 Free images of Mermaid. Mermaid The Sea Maid. (more on that later..) Sirenians are all very similar in appearance, with smooth, rounded, massive bodies, flipper-like forelimbs, and a … II Manatee heads were often surrounded by seaweed.

Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Now I just heard on TV (the Spike show "MANswers, not the most reliable of sources, perhaps) that the female dugong has genitals most similar to the human female, and they either implied or said outright that sailors would doink them. Silhouette Mermaid Tail. d. another word for mermaid 2. Still, it hardly looks human and it also lacks scales like classic drawings of mermaids.

With the right moonlight, calm waters and a little too much rum, and perhaps with a little seaweed for hair, the West Indian manatee could become every lonely sailor's dream come true. Nature Outdoors Ants. Manatees and dugongs are similar, but they are different species inhabiting different areas. Three Reasons Ancient Sailors May Have Mistaken Manatees for Mermaids I They pop their heads out of the water to breathe. Adult manatees appear to average somewhere between 9' and 10' in length.

Like other manatees, American manatees spend the vast majority of their lives in shallow waters of bays, estuaries, creeks and rivers, rarely, if ever, venturing out into the deeper waters of the open sea, and never leaving the water to come onto land.
Notice the flat toenails on each flipper, and the flexible, somewhat prehensile upper lip, that are reminiscent of elephant anatomy.

Manatees range in size from 8 to 13 feet (2.4 to 4 … 204 231 19.

Sign in. Mermaid Water Creature. [quote="Revtim, post:1, topic:496051"] I've always heard that manatees and dugongs were the source of the siren and mermaid myths. Sailors across cultures thought the aquatic mammals were young women of the sea. Because of this they are bottom-dwelling. An easy way to tell the difference is tail shape. Mermaid Fantasy. Their forelimbs have 5 sets of fingerlike bones which, when submerged … 91 185 2. Mermaid Fish Tail. (Siren/mermaid myth) For yet another reference point, they're also called sea cows. 161 188 13.

This may have looked like long, flowing hair.

Child Baby Water Wave. Manatees are large marine mammals which have flat tails, flippers, and egg-like heads, according to Live Science. Many believe that the old sailor's mermaids were manatees. See more ideas about Manatee, Sea cow, Dugong. These animals have a flat, mermaid-like … 213 222 23.

Upon seeing three creatures, he stated that they were “not as pretty as they are depicted, for somehow in the face they look like men.” What were these mermaid-like creatures Columbus stumbled across?
179 210 22. But to do so you must erase any memories of paintings showing beautiful voluptuous mermaid women combing their long blonde hair while seated on a rock. Today, Melissa attaches a nearly 60-pound fish tail onto her body in order to look and perform as a mermaid, The Huffington Post reports. Original art on men’s, women’s and kid’s tees. 272 459 43.

The tail of a manatee is like a big, flat disk, while the tail of a dugong is shaped a bit more like a dolphin’s tail. It looks like a mermaid or something.

150 197 9. The manatee is below the water here, but from the way it dives it does seem almost reasonable that the manatee could be the basis of the mermaid legend.

106 105 20. From a distance, sailors may have thought the heads looks human-like. There are two subspecies of West Indian manatee, the Antillean manatee, and the Florida manatee. On average, manatees … "A much more seclusive animal is the true mermaid of legend--the dugong of the open ocean.