emo cryptid

merarchive image stats as of 6/2/26 (archive finally (!!!) complete but unpublished atm) (context: i run merarchive dot weebly dot com and am doing a HUGE overhaul of the entire site and turning it into a hopefully useable database and actual source of information rather than just a nostalgic tribute to the past. i'm Very Nearly Ready to publish everything that i've been working on near-daily for the past a little over a year now since i started making a more serious effort abt things. stay tuned!!! this little stat spreadsheet is jst for funsies since i heart to count <333. data has a good spread but is also likely biased as images are hand-picked by myself and also heavily (though not exclusively) focused on the era of 2005-2015 ~ish.)

format: color-art/photo/sculpture=total

pink-9/40/1=50 red-16/28/7=51 orange-44/111/5=160 yellow-26/27/6=59 green-154/47/29=230 blue-186/224/12=421 purple-16/12/0=28 brown-26/10/17=53 black or black with white-20/17/4=41 silver/gray-61/32/7=100 white/clear-18/30/14=62 multicolor cool tones-57/49/11=117 multicolor neutral or with neutral tones-31/43/16=90 multicolor warm tones-10/25/1=36 multicolor rainbow-12/25/8=45 multicolor blue/green/yellow or blue/yellow or green/yellow*-29/65/3=97 multicolor blue/orange*-7/6/1=14 multicolor green/orange*-4/7/0=11 multicolor purple/green or purple/yellow*-13/12/0=25 multicolor red/blue*-21/12/2=35 multicolor red/green*-23/5/2=30 multicolor true other*-14/10/0=24 multicolor contrasting tones combined (all *s)-111/117/8=236 multicolor all combined-221/259/44=524

total** combined-797/837/145=1779 **not counting images where there are multiple mers that have tail colors different from each other as this would complicate the data set significantly

Ordered Most-Least Common: multicolor all combined (524)-blue (421)-multicolor contrasting tones combined (all *s) (236)-green (230)-orange (160)-multicolor cool tones (117)-silver/gray (100)-multicolor blue/green/yellow or blue/yellow or green/yellow (97)-multicolor neutral or with neutral tones (90)-white/clear (62)-yellow (59)-brown (53)-red (51)-pink (50)-multicolor rainbow (45)-black or black with white (41)-multicolor warm tones (36)-multicolor red/blue (35)-multicolor red/green (30)-purple (28)-multicolor purple/green or purple/yellow (25)-multicolor true other (24)-multicolor blue/orange (14)-multicolor green/orange (11)

Ordered Most-Least Common Single Colors Only: blue (421)-green (230)-orange (160)-silver/gray (100)-white/clear (62)-yellow (59)-brown (53)-red (51)-pink (50)-black or black with white (41)-purple (28)

blue is overwhelmingly popular (influenced by a blue tail often being the cultural default (as blue=water) and popularized modernly by Aquamarine (2006), figures like Hannah Fraser, and influences from the past as well), with green coming in second (influenced by Ariel of Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989)) and orange in third (Influenced by H2O: Just Add Water). silver/gray is also quite common, as silver was a popular color for depictions of the 1900's (note: black and white images were not counted, only when b&w tails were a deliberate choice). white was surprisingly common, but makes sense considering its similarity to seafoam, as well as how early/amateur underwater photography will often overexpose the subject, making the tail appear white. yellow, brown, red, pink, and black are uncommon, but not rare persay. purple is surprisingly underrepresented in the database.

in terms of multicolor tales, cool tones and the blue-green-yellow combo (+those similar) are INCREDIBLY common, as they are very ocean-y pallettes. neutral tone combos are also very common, as this just means any tail that includes white/black/brown, so a large portion of striped&spotted tails went here. rainbow tails are uncommon but not rare, but warm toned pallettes are fairly rare, as well as contrasting tails outside of the blue/green/yellow range. the rarest colored tails are green and orange, excluding tails in the "true other" category (as although they ranked total higher than green/orange, the tails within do not match each other).