A dugong in an aquarium in Sydney, Australia. Photo by jo3hug via Flickr.

It must have required many lonely months out to sea to mistake this face only a mother could love for that of a fair maiden, but encounters with dugongs are indeed said to have been the inspiration for the myth of the mermaid. While the fictional fish-human hybrids were believed to have "called sailors to their death by encouraging them to jump overboard from their ships," Green ProphetRead the full story on TreeHugger