80 Million Years Old,,,,, and still Alive!?

[BIAD]

It looks like P.T. Barnum's "Fiji Mermaid" to me:



The Fiji Mermaid(s) - there were acxtually several produced after the success of the first one shown above - were known hoaxes, sewing a monkey body to a fish tail to create sideshow exhibits for the titillation of the masses - and to extract coins from their pockets.

With that said, I recall the Animal Planet "mermaid hoax" in 2013, and I recall wondering, often aloud, at the sort of person that would take that seriously as a real documentary. I watched it, and it was very obvious to me that it was never meant as a real documentary. It was not an intentional hoax, but gullible people wanting to believe did so, and when the inevitable reveal occurred, they are the ones who labeled it as a "hoax" in a fit of letdown pique - it was never meant to be serious. It was just a flight of fantasy on Animal Planet - sort of like the "what will the world be like a million years into the future" "documentaries" that were prevalent on the History channel back then. No one took them to be actual documentaries, and I was mystified why anyone took the Animal Planet show as one.

I think Barnum made this one too.


Melissa “Mish” Zimdars.