Mermaids the body found how much is real

Sign In. TV Movie 1h 22m. Director Sid Bennett. Top credits Director Sid Bennett. See more at IMDbPro. Photos Top cast Edit.

Andre Weideman Paul as Paul. Candice D'Arcy Rebecca as Rebecca. David Soul Narrator as Narrator voice. Jason Cope Dr. Rodney Webster as Dr. Rodney Webster. David Evans Dr. Paul Robertson interview as Dr. Paul Robertson interview. Helen Johns Dr. Rebecca Davis as Dr. Rebecca Davis. Sid Bennett. Mikkelson quickly debunk the hoax, pointing out that "the program was not fact but rather speculative science fiction, and it included obvious CGI-produced video sequences.

The site also noted a tie-in website, believeinmermaids. Department of Justice and Homeland Security. Others were in on the joke from the start. The program aired in Australia in , and the hoax was thoroughly debunked at the time by columnists there. Brad Newsome of The Sydney Morning Herald wrote at the time , "The version that I saw doesn't even do viewers the courtesy of admitting that it's fake until the credits are about to roll," and dismissed the "aquatic ape" theory, a real hypothesis first proposed in and presented in the show, as "rather fringe.

But it belongs on more tabloid channels that don't have any pretensions of scientific or historical credibility. Did you see the show? Our ancestors head back to the inland forests, but the fictional mermaid ancestors remain on the beach and become fully aquatic within just a million years.

Keep in mind that the transition between completely terrestrial and fully aquatic whales took 10 million years. But this was on a self-styled educational network. Animal Planet cashed in on its poorly earned reputation as a science channel — the network previously aired The Pet Psychic , after all — to make gullible viewers believe mermaids are real. Fooled you! Speculative biology can be a lot of fun — to wonder how different forms of life might have evolved.

And, with the right context and presentation, Mermaids could have been a unique way to highlight evolutionary and biological ideas. But rather than being a hook for communicating actual science, Mermaids was a sensationalistic end in itself. Not that my debunking will do much good. Debunking false claims only makes a difference if people actually pay attention to the correction. While I appreciate that Rebecca singled me out as a debunker — the specific instance being the case of earth-altering dinosaur farts — my cranky takedowns usually amount to little more than damage control and are primarily read by people who are similarly annoyed with the media.

All rights reserved. From the press release: Mermaids: The Body Found is a story about evolutionary possibility grounded in a radical scientific theory — the Aquatic Ape Theory, which claims that humans had an aquatic stage in our evolutionary past.

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