Ariel and Erin on the Beach, The Little Mermaid
People like to think that The Little Mermaid , Ariel, was more than likely traumatized by her wedding night and the goings on of human sex opposed to her “fishy” ways. Well, for those people who think they are oh so clever, I’m going to say that she more than likely was not. I’m not a scientist but I do enjoy studying evolution and Ariel has several features that indicate that Mermaids are mammals and would give birth and have sex and not lay a clutch of eggs.
People claim that mermaids reproduce like fish, in that females lay a clutch of eggs and males fertilized them. However, let’s just look at some traits of Ariel’s that show they are not related to fish and they for wouldn’t reproduces this way. Three traits and two are stupid obvious so we’ll start with the one that people would not think of; Ariel’s fins.
Ariel’s Fin, The Little Mermaid
Ariel’s fins, like all mermaids’s are horizontal much like dolphin’s and whale’s fins. Fish fins are vertical. But what does this mean? This reflects the evolutionary locomotion of the animal. Fish evolved from creatures that moved from side to side and the vertical tail allows for that motion or what is called lateral undulation. Dolphins and whales evolved from land mammals and they adapted an up and down locomotion or dorsoventral undulation. This means that for mermaids to have these fins they would have to evolved from land creatures.
Ariel Disney The Little Mermaid
Then we have the two traits that make it very, very clear, that mermaids are mammals; Mermaids has breasts and Bellybuttons. These two traits make it so clear that Mermaids give birth to live young that I’m not sure where the Fish egg idea came from, probably from that Futurama episode. However belly buttons, or navel, are where the umbilical cord is attached. All placental mammals have a navels. Breasts are mammary glands found on the upper torso of primates. The purpose of which is to feed milk to offspring. This means that Mermaids are mammals who nurse their young and navels indicate that they would get pregnant.
Ariel making icky face
I think the only thing Ariel might have been weirded out by would that Eric doesn’t keep his genitalia inside his body like marine mammals.