Is Ariel a mammalian mermaid?

[buckmana]

This is something I started to wonder about recently.

In H2O Just Add Water, the mermaid trio's fishtails are actually quite different to that of a real fishtail.
Basically, a fish has vertical fins whereas the trio's fins are horizontal.
And a mermaid swims by bending their tail up and down (mammal skeletal/musclular structure) rather then side to side like a fish does.
I'm assuming the explanation for this is that they're mammal/fish hybrids, so have an anatomy closer to that of a whale or dolphin then an actual fishperson.
The evil scientist in the show even says something like this when analyzing a cell sample from Cleo, that the scale she finds is not from any fish she knows and it has mammalian characteristics.

Which got me wondering, are Ariel's fins vertical or horizontal?
If they're horizontal, it would imply that she's also a mammal hybrid.
And that someone did their homework before drawing her properly.

I don't know if there are any pictures that specifically show the alignment of her tailfins though.
I'll have to see if there are any that show that.
Or if you have one, feel free to share it.

[princessariel96]

This is absolutely an interesting topic.

I really want to help you, but I've never thought not of it before.

[critteriffic]

I could say she is mammalian. Her tail fin is like that of a dolphin, and she does have breasts like mammals. Just sayin...