History portrays mermaids as half fish and half human but obviously such a hybrid can't possibly exist in the real world as half fish half mammal. So what do you think merpeople would look like in reality from an evolutionary stand point?

Well, such things as monotremes exist so…never say never! I do think mer people would be akin to seals however. That or they would have gills, because if they were airbreathers they would be partially aquatic. Their hind legs would merge into a flipper supporting compound bone structure. They would also likely still have opposable thumbs for tool use and hunting practices and would travel in pods similar to whales as it would be nigh impossible to set up a civilization underwater large enough to support a colony. Communication would be by echolocation of sounds blips, and to do so they would have to develop an organ similar to a beluga whales hump. I dont imagine they would have hair as it would be useless for a biological benefit… So in other words…

They would be fuckin hideous.

0 out of 10, would not bang.