History Main / ApparentlyHumanMerfolk

* ''Series/Stingray1964'' has main character Marina and her race the Pacificians, a race of nonverbal merfolk who look like humans but can breath underwater in the city of Pacifica and communicate with each other telepathically. They use hand gestures to communicate with humans.

* Marina and her people (all of whom are mute) from ''Series/Stingray1964''.

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* In ''Film/BlackPantherWakandaForever,'' Namor's city of Talokan is full of merfolk. During the Spanish conquest of South America, [[WasOnceAMan some Mayan villagers]] suffering smallpox prayed to the rain-god Chaac for help, and their shaman found [[BioluminescenceIsCool a glowing blue plant in their cenote.]] After he made a drink for everyone, it gave them gills and turned their skin blue so they could escape into the ocean; underwater, their skin turns brown again. [[spoiler: The plant's mutating abilities is because several millennia ago, a meteor full of vibranium fell to Earth and landed off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.]]

* When [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent mermaids]] in ''Manga/OnePiece'' turn 30, their tail splits into legs. They can turn their legs back into a tail if they need to, but seems to [[ShapeshifterDefaultForm default to a form]] indistinguishable from humans.

* ''Literature/{{Tempest}}'': Merchildren are born looking just like humans, aside from their gills. Sometime during adolescence, they gain the ability to morph their legs into a tail. Selkies, who can breathe underwater in both their human and seal forms, are also this when they're not wearing their pelts.

* ''Literature/{{Siren}}'': Sirens look exactly like humans, except for their silver eyes.

* Done as early as 1909 in the French serial "''L'Homme qui peut viure dans l'eau''" (serialized in the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Herald Los Angeles Herald]] as ''Literature/HictanerTheManThatLivedInTheWater''), where the titular character (Hictaner, from ancient Greek "itchyos" + "aner", i. e. "Fish-man") is a man with shark gills instead of lungs that wears a [[AnimalDisguise fishlike sparkly scaled costume]]. He was kidnapped as a child by two supervillain-like brothers who operated and brainwashed him to follow their evil plans of [[BombThrowingAnarchists bombing navies for world domination]]... At least, until he [[LoveRedeems falls in love with]] one of their innocent relatives. The serial is also the prequel of the more known ProtoSuperhero series [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyctalope Nyctalope]], since one of serial's villains reappears in a ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898''-themed novel.
* ''Hictaner'' is best known by its 1928 Soviet remake ''Literature/AmphibianMan'' (and its 1961 film adaption), which reworks some of its more pulpy elements into socialist realism tropes, like reimagining the surgery as an EmergencyTransformation by a benevolent scientist, creating a new and more plausible [[BadBoss greedy pearl fisher]] villain, and being focused in the LoveDodecahedron / [[NatureVersusTechnology moralistic]] [[FamilyOfChoice themes]].

* In ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', Lucy views these sorts of Sea People through the crystal-clear waters of the eastern Last Sea. They don't make contact, but she watches them using trained fish like hunting falcons and observes underwater farms and a royal court.

* ''Hictaner is best known by its 1928 Soviet remake ''Literature/AmphibianMan'' (and its 1961 film adaption), which reworks some of its more pulpy elements into socialist realism tropes, like reimagining the surgery as an EmergencyTransformation by a benevolent scientist, creating a new and more plausible [[BadBoss greedy pearl fisher]] villain, and being focused in the LoveDodecahedron / [[NatureVersusTechnology moralistic]] [[FamilyOfChoice themes]].

* Done as early as 1909 in the French serial "''L'Homme qui peut viure dans l'eau''" (serialized in the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Herald Los Angeles Herald]] as "''Hictaner: The man that lived in the water''"), where the titular character (Hictaner, from ancient Greek "itchyos" + "aner", i. e. "Fish-man") is a man with shark gills instead of lungs that wears a [[AnimalDisguise fishlike sparkly scaled costume]]. He was kidnapped as a child by two supervillain-like brothers who operated and brainwashed him to follow their evil plans of [[BombThrowingAnarchists bombing navies for world domination]]... At least, until he [[LoveRedeems falls in love with]] one of their innocent relatives. The serial is also the prequel of the more known ProtoSuperhero series [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyctalope Nyctalope]], since one of serial's villains reappears in a ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898''-themed novel.
** The novel is best known by its 1928 Soviet remake "''[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibian_Man Amphibian Man]]''" (and its 1961 film adaption), which reworks some of its more pulpy elements into socialist realism tropes, like reimagining the surgery as an EmergencyTransformation by a benevolent scientist, creating a new and more plausible [[BadBoss greedy pearl fisher]] villain, and being focused in the LoveDodecahedron / [[NatureVersusTechnology moralistic]] [[FamilyOfChoice themes]].

* The titular heroine of ''Series/OceanGirl'' looks fully human.

* When [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent mermaids]] in ''Manga/OnePiece'' turn 30, their tail splits into legs. A {{Downplayed}} example since they can turn their legs back into a tail if they need to, but from that point on they're indistinguishable from humans.