Thread: On the Origin of Species: Relicanth: Investigating the inspirations behind Pokémon

On the Origin of Species: Relicanth: Investigating the inspirations behind Pokémon

In another column exploring the likely cultural and zoological origins of Pokémon species, we take a look at the Longevity Pokémon, Relicanth.

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Awesome article as always. I was already familiar with the living fossil term and thought Relicanth fits it perfectly, but didn't know about the discovery of the real life fish behind the Pokémon.

That was a great read. I had never looked up the history of the coelacanth. It's very cool how Relicanth's history mirrors that of the coelacanth, in both having been thought to be extinct before living specimens were discovered.

While I already did know about Relicanth's origin it was still nice to have an article about it.

I already knew about Relicanth being a coelacanth and such... But I didn't know about how the shiny one mirrors how the animal was found. (or the story about how was it found at all, that was very interesting!)

As I am very interested in biology and mythology I really like this column. I'd like to contribute to it in some way even...

Great work on these articles.

I knew about Coelacanths since like 2006 when I was 10-11. I just know it from the name!
I actually thought something else would've been next though, but I liked the Article. The Pokemon that was on mind was something like Claydol which probably would've been covered with excellence or the different cats. The Maneki neko for Meowth; more in depth explanations of Skitty. Well done for these entertaining articles.

I knew what relicanth was based off of, before I even caught one. D= Coelacanth's are now a frequent symbol of perservation against the passing of time. But I do like the article, and I do enjoy the news stories that come out every now and then about the fish. XD

I love these articles, Thank you!

Like others have said, I was aware of the coelacanth's existence but not the details of its discovery. Interesting read. Thanks!

I didn't know the details either.
Great article.

Thanks.

I do not know if you would be interested in looking into it as a future artical but the relationship between Paras / Parasect and the mushrooms that grow on them remind me of the parasetic fungi that attack ants.
Looking them up on science daily gives;
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080116142805.htm - has a peice on a nematode that causes a species of ant to look like a berry to passing birds,
then there is; http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090811161345.htm , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCOQ0VU24xw (already up on Paras page by Commanderraf) & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cordyceps.jpg all show ants under attack from the fungus cordyceps which takes control over the ant and directs it to go to a suitabal location for it to continue sporning, the ants even have the blank white eyes of the Parasect in the photos.

knew about this one!
Keep these articles comin'!

Love the story of the "living fossil" coelecanth.

I had to try to explain to my grandmother that it wasn't "ressurected", it was never extinct in the first place and we only found new specimens.
Took her a while to get it, lol

One thing that didn't really have a place in this week's article was my pet theory regarding Relicanth...

I think that Relicanth may have originally been intended to be a Fossil Pokemon - sort of a Generation III equivalent of Aerodactyl. Firstly, it has the Rock typing associated with all fossils. Secondly, it has the 7:1 gender ratio that you generally only see in "one-off" Pokemon species; the kind you only get one of per game. Relatively few Pokemon families have this: just starters, fossils and certain other in-game event Pokemon like Eevee.

...then again, it's also possible that whoever was in charge of assigning gender ratios in Generation III simply assumed it was intended to be a fossil. The fact that Azurill also has a messed-up gender ratio leads me to speculate that they weren't really giving the task their full attention...

Thanks for your comments, everyone! Many of these articles will be about animals you've already heard of (in fact, I'm currently writing one about a very well-known animal, but one that deserves its own article for reasons you'll discover when you read it), and my aim is really just to tell an interesting story. The one I have planned for next week, however, is undoubtedly my most obscure origin yet...

Nice. I sort of know about the coelecanth (the fact it's a living fossil).