Animal Planet and “Sirens”, the documentary that sets tongues wagging (watch video)

United States, March 20, 2011

Yesterday, Animal Planet presented a study done by biologists. It could claim old stories of sailors and travelers of the world’s waters. Using underwater microphones, scientists recorded sounds from creatures that have never been identified, are unknown to us.

We all know that the sirens are characters in the Greek mythology, but like other fantastic beings, there are always doubts about their actual existence. So Animal Planet produced the documentary called “Sirens”, which raises the possibility that the myth is true.

It is a two-hour documentary, which is complemented with dramatizations and computer generated images. It is a work of Brian McCormick, a marine biologist at NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

“McCormick questioned the possibility that an animal evolved to the point of developing its human characteristics and physiology of aquatic species, suggesting the existence of beings much like the sirens we know from fairy tales”.

In the research is told that in the spring of 2004, a group of whales was found dead on a beach in Washington. McCormick wanted to find out what happened with them suspecting that the Navy’s sonar had caused the death of the cetaceans.

That’s when he decided to install underwater microphones and recorded an unidentified sound, from unknown creatures.

Thus he began a search for what is believed could become a new type of dolphin or whale, but unlike what he had expected, the scientists concluded that the species has some kind of relationship with humans.

The mystery would have its origin in the remote past, eight million years ago, when our ape ancestors had just fallen from the trees.

Through stunning recreations and CGI, the program shows a group of them living on the coast, collecting shellfish from the rocks.

Later apes went into the water, diving for food, but swimming with two legs, just as we do today.

“Millions of years later, his legs could have been merged into a tail and feet, it would have become a flap. We would not be talking about apes, but of a ‘prototype of sirens” says Animal Planet.

If this is true or not, is a matter of what we believe. The reality is that humanity has explored only 5% of the water of the World, reason why we should not be surprised to see strange and new species that we don’t know.