Scientific Paper Published About Pokémon... by Professor Oak, no less!

[ProfessorSpruce]

Scientific Paper Published About Pokémon... by Professor Oak, no less!

A Phylogeny and Evolutionary History of the Pokémon — Matan Shelomi, Andrew Richards, Ivana Li and Yukinari Okido. Annals of Improbable Research 18(4): p15-17

Available for free here: http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume18/v18i4/v18i4.html

It's a science humor journal, but the article contains legit science. A phylogeny was made showing hypothetical evolutionary relationships for the Pokémon using their move-sets as characters.

The results are quite surprising:
-Pokémon life started in the water, with terrestriality evolving independently three times: Once with the ice types (Dewgong is the missing link), once with the flying types (Pelliper), and once more among the waters.
-Psychic Pokemon evolved from bird pokemon, like Xatu, and eventually lost the ability to fly, suggesting Levitation is just modified flight.
-Normal types evolve next, but they are a paraphyletic clade.
-The fire types evolve from the dogs.
-The missing link between the plant and normal types is, unsurprisingly, Venusaur.
-Single-gender pokemon pairs like Nidoking and Nidoqueen are almost always sister groups.
-Many similar-looking pokemon are monophyletic clades: the cats, the fish, the pink cute things, the legendary dragons, etc.

See for yourself: the high quality phylogeny is here

http://i.imgur.com/e8eFs.jpg

I'm very excited that i got this published… and managed to sneak Prof. Oak as a co-author too (using his original Japanese name of course). It's a fun read, so enjoy!

 

[Mitja]

Maybe there was an intelligent creator?
Who would of course start with single cellular organisms and then move on to more complex creatures, making his creation look like a process with lots of small steps, because that's what it would have been.




Love the explanation for origin of Psychics in that tree!

 

[TheMaster327]

As Stephen Hawking would say (ala his Big Bang Theory appearance) - 'Too bad it's wrong.'

Pokemon can only evolve a maximum of 2 times, not 3!

 

[Swampert is my Homeboy]

Wow, that's complex.... it is very interesting to look at though.

 

[Cutty]

Yup, they have history after all..

 

[Estellise]

That was complex. O.O

 

[Royal_Qeca]

"-The fire types evolve from the dogs."

I wonder what happened to create a Slugma. Poor dog...

 

[JennaJayfeather]

The phylogeny tree doesn't make much sense. :/ It's too scattered..of course I'm judging it by the Pokemon themselves, and what they are based on. Like why does Samurott and Basculin share a recent common ancestor? o.o; Basculin is a fish and Samurott is a sea lion. It should be waaaaaaay back.

 

[blackterminator3]

I enjoyed that complex theory.

 

[Will-powered Spriter]

As Stephen Hawking would say (ala his Big Bang Theory appearance) - 'Too bad it's wrong.'

Pokemon can only evolve a maximum of 2 times, not 3!

Actually, the type of evolving Pokemon do is inaccurately named, and would be better off being called metamorphosis. They can only change into a different creature by glowing a lot 2 times maximum, but if the fossil pokemon are any indication, they evolve over 1000s of years as many times as they want.

That said, the chart looks a bit naff. Why are Porygon, Genesect etc. on there, when they were stated to be man made? Why is Zapdos descended from Raichu of all things, when it should be in the birdy section? Why is parasect in the same class as Breloom and Amoongus, when its an insect infected by fungus and not fungus? Why does it stick so rigidly to typing?

The thing seems to be ignoring both official Pokemon canon AND real life logic and just grouping things first by type and then by things that look like other things.

 

[Mitja]

Why does it stick so rigidly to typing?

Thats what I thought... egg-group would make much more sense lol

 

[SoulSilverMstr411]

Intresting stuff.

 

[Dreamy]

Hmm interesting, kinda makes sense.

 

[darthscyther123]

Does anyone else have a problem with Sigilyph coming before Arceus? Also Palkia and Dialga after Flygon?

 

[Tuskie Tyrant Yoko Kurama]

"-The fire types evolve from the dogs."

I wonder what happened to create a Slugma. Poor dog...

Have you ever heard how Ditto was created, the same thing happened to Slugma.

 

[ProfessorSpruce]

Thanks for the replies!

Like real phylogenies, this is only a hypothesis. The tree was made using egg groups and body types, but also the 700 or so attacks. Attacks tend to follow type, hence this tree came out by types as well. In real biology, you either use morphological characteristics (how the creature looks), which is arbitrary, or genetics, which is the best but not possible with pokémon for obvious reasons.

Still, while there are a few odd pairings, for the most part the tree is robust! I didn't calculate bootstrap values though. Sorry, I'm getting technical.

For the record, when making the tree I used Ditto as an outgroup (the Pokémon assumed to be outside all the others, sharing a common ancestor with the ancestor of all the others). That's because it's so darn bizarre and only knows one move, plus that would explain it's shape-shifting ability!

 

[Vivian]

Hey, fossils coming AFTER today´s pokemon? Kyogre/groudon/giratina/dialga coming after many stuff?
I would put normal type as the first type, from what all the other types came from. All the pokemon that can completely change types, excluding moves, and including evos and abilities, are normal types. Look at keckleon, ditto, eevee, castform, arceus, azuril.

 

[Vivian]

I think that, like todays animals, we can have a better hint o wich pokemon is closer to wich pokemon looking at their young forms. At very begining, human embrios look a lot like fishes embrios. Then, they start to look diferently, but theyre still similar to repitilian, and then, other mamalian´s embrios.

I think all pokemon, inside the egg, are normal type pokemon. And normal types can change types relatively easy.

I´ll take azuril´s line as an example. Lets say that in an ancient time, a normal type pokemon similar to azuril lived, and evolved to another normal type pokemon similar to marill, and then to a normal type similar to azumaril. Then, the place in wich they lived was flooded. Pokemon that were able to swim better survived and had more eggs. Then, an ancient normal type marill evolved to a water type azumaril. The azumaril had advantage in the flooded habitat and had more eggs. Then, when all the ancient marils used to evolve in water type azumarils, a azuril evolved in a water type marill. So, this marill had advantage and had more eggs. Then, some marills, had the ability of give birth to eggs from wich marills, and not azurils, hatched. That happened when they were in a dangerous habitat, in wich azuril could be easily killed and werent able to evolve by happyness, because they could be killed anu time. So, the azurils that keep themselves inside the eggs, and hatched as marils, were able to survive more. Thats why marils need incenses to give birth to azurils: they need to be really relaxed to have azurils.

Also, flygon looks a lot like a bug when its young( trapinch), so, i think it was a bug type pokemon that had so much trouble for being a bug type, that the ones that hatched as bug/ground type had advantage( to live in a desert and not get hurt by sandstorm), and then, they started to hatch as pure ground type, so that, they had less weaknesses. Eventually, an ancient vibrava evolved to a dragon/ground pokemon, and had a huge advantage. Then, a trapinch evolved to a dragon/ground vibrava. But theyre still closer to bugs then to other dragon type pokemon, and thus, are in bug egg group.

 

[TheFightingPikachu]

Actually, the type of evolving Pokemon do is inaccurately named, and would be better off being called metamorphosis. They can only change into a different creature by glowing a lot 2 times maximum, but if the fossil pokemon are any indication, they evolve over 1000s of years as many times as they want.

That said, the chart looks a bit naff. Why are Porygon, Genesect etc. on there, when they were stated to be man made? Why is Zapdos descended from Raichu of all things, when it should be in the birdy section? Why is parasect in the same class as Breloom and Amoongus, when its an insect infected by fungus and not fungus? Why does it stick so rigidly to typing?

The thing seems to be ignoring both official Pokemon canon AND real life logic and just grouping things first by type and then by things that look like other things.

First, thanks much for your first sentence!

Second, I agree with your analysis of those specific cases and especially your question about typing. To be honest, the series doesn't seem to have one explanation for typing: in some cases it seems to be predominantly about where the Pokémon lives, while in other cases there seems to be some talk of semi-mystical "essences" of, for example "wateriness" or "fieriness."

Like real phylogenies, this is only a hypothesis. The tree was made using egg groups and body types, but also the 700 or so attacks. Attacks tend to follow type, hence this tree came out by types as well. In real biology, you either use morphological characteristics (how the creature looks), which is arbitrary, or genetics, which is the best but not possible with pokémon for obvious reasons.

Haven't you bred Pokémon competitively? Their genetics are their IVs, Nature, and Ability!

 

[Sante]

TheFightingPikachu, Pokemon genetics are most likely to be just their base stats and abilities. IVs and EVs come from training not from birth. Natures are like their personalities so they aren't genetic. For example, a Snorlax will have his Immunity ability or Thick Fat from birth because it's genetic. His stats are also genetic. Think about HP. It's like pain tolerance. You are born with a specific amount of pain tolerance. Yet, HP can be EV trained because you can learn to tolerate more pain through techniques like meditation etc EVs and IVs are basically improvement through training. Natures as well. Your Snorlax can be bold or adamant just like you can be stubborn or selfish. Personality isn't inherited. It is developed when at a very young age and it's greatly affected by your family and surroundings.

Anyway, I don't understand that chart. It's so confusing. I get some things like Miltank being Normal yet being among grass types because it's a herbivore just like Stantler. I also get how Blissey and Audino relate to each other. How can all Psychic types origin form birds? How can Gardevoir be a descendant of bird Pokemon? Or Lunatone? Levitation isn't flight it's just telekinesis. It's very interesting, but it's just not very logical.