No standard Mers here

[ink_in_hand]

Someone mentioned a while back that they were curious as to what a Gulper Eel (some species also known as the Pelican Eel) would look like as a merperson. Well...here you go whoever you are.

"What were you expecting? Ariel?"

Comments

Whoa, I'm seriously out of it if I can't rationalize the details of some of my favorite organisms...

[chopperaerials.livejournal.com]

Pardon, I'm still kinda drowsy from class; how does the infamous mouth work now, if you don't mind my asking?

Re: Whoa, I'm seriously out of it if I can't rationalize the details of some of my favorite organism

[ink-in-hand.livejournal.com]

Probably much the same way. The thing I see needing to happen would be a lack of a sternum, so that anything they swallow isn't caught up in the ribcage.

[chopperaerials.livejournal.com]

I wonder how that would affect the skeletal structure...I suppose the relevant bones would connect in some other way, but I have no knowledge of anatomy, so I can't say anything more.

[ink-in-hand.livejournal.com]

Well the sternum is the front bone of your chest that the ends of your ribs attach to, so I don't see much rearrangement necessary for things to work. I'm hard pressed to think of a fish that might have a sternum to begin with anyway. *anatomy geek*

[heslestor.livejournal.com]

*squees**waves hand* That would be me. And that's absolutely lovely, such wonderful spots it has. *pets spots* Eels are one of my favorite marine animals, followed closely by just about every single deep sea creature there is, because not only do they look awesome, but they freakin' glow. Then there's the cuttlefish and blue ringed octopus, which are another brand of awesome as well. And clown fish, can't forget them.

And, after pondering gender of merfolk for a moment (well, more along the lines of tying to figure out what gender this one was) I just wondered how humans would react to them if they actually met them. 'Cause you know how politically correct some people are, right? So, the poor human(s) would be trying to figure out what gender the merfolk person was with varying types of comments and questions while trying to be subtle about it, with the merfolk all amused and purposely avoiding the question, because I mean, isn't it totally obvious what gender they are, look at the spots.

*fondly remembers obsession with the movie Little Mermaid*

[ink-in-hand.livejournal.com]

Let's just categorize 'all sea life' = awesome, that way it doesn't take as long to say. And the possibility of leaving some neat critter off of the list is nil.

(I think I had him as a he in my head, but now I don't know anymore) Undersea gender [sex] is amazing and would absolutely blow the minds of a lot of people if they knew about it. Example: Clownfish can change their sex if there is an unbalance in the populations. Not enough males? A female will become one given a little bit of time. So... Nemos' dad? May very well have been a mother at one point. (I told a girl a little younger than me this the other day, and her reaction was just priceless) Not to mention all the animals that are hermaphroditic and are both male and female at the same time. *is fascinated by nature's way of continuing life without being bound to the human preferred view of two set sexes*

The...spots? *confused* I didn't think gulpers were dimorphic.