For much of the eighteenth century, Western intellectuals chased after mermaids, trying to pin down “humanity’s marine origins.”

The Morning News https://ift.tt/3im3mfA

Because of merpeople’s biological similarity to humans, Vosmaer argued that they were “more subject to decay after death than the body of other fishes.” Such a lack of preservation not only diminished sightings, it also went towards explaining the lack of full specimens in cabinets of curiosities.

↩︎ The Public Domain Review

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