Yes, the mermaid is a creature that people have imagined based on the manatee.
In reality, mermaids do not exist. Still, there are archetypes of mermaids. The mainstream view is that the mermaid is a creature imagined by people based on the manatee. Female manatees have a pair of breasts on the ventral side of the base of their forelimbs, similar to human beings, and their breasts are often exposed to the water when they breastfeed, which is often mistaken for "mermaids" by people's eyes.
Zoological classification, the manatee order includes dugong and manatee two families. The dugong is a manatee that lives in Indo-Pacific waters and has a forked caudal fin that resembles that of a cetacean. Dugongs are huge and naive, and are also found in the waters of Guangdong Province and Taiwan Province of China. The distribution range of the dugong, and Zheng He's activities in the Western Ocean part of the overlap. Therefore, we can not rule out the possibility that Zheng He had seen the "dugong".
Expanded Information
The legendary mermaid was a manatee, and this explanation was generally recognized at the end of the 19th century. Manatees usually live in tropical oceans or lakes, with a body length of 1.5 to 4 meters, a body shape like a barrel, and grayish-white skin. They prefer to live in estuaries or shallow bays and feed on algae and other aquatic plants.
The mammary glands of the female manatee are different from those of other animals in that they are not located in the abdomen, but in the chest. Therefore, when nursing their young, they hold them in their chests with their forelegs, leaving their heads above the water. The head is exposed to the water, and there is also some sparse hair on the back. It looks like a beauty with a fishtail on its lower body.
Scientists are said to have found a complete fossilized mermaid off the coast of Yugoslavia, which is strong evidence that mermaids existed in the world. According to archaeologists, the animal was buried alive about 12,000 years ago in a landslide underwater. The surrounding limestone allowed the female's body to be preserved as a fossil.
According to the fossil, the mermaid was about 100 centimeters tall and resembled a human from the waist up. Its head was more developed and its eyes had no curtains. In addition, its teeth were so sharp that it could have killed its prey, making it a ferocious predator.
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