Subject: Response to The Trojanhorse
Author:
Posted on: 2009-05-15 12:54:00 UTC

“Disclaimer - my entire knowledge of pokemon is based on my having watched the first series of the cartoon when I was about eleven or twelve, which is over ten yeras ago now.”

Hey, I’m writing a fic with the same kind of knowledge (plus some of the games). Any form of help is appreciated, especially from someone with as much biology knowledge as you.

“Animals and plants are grouped based on different charactersitics, and the idea of grouping them is to make sure that each group contains only organisms that are more closely related to each other than they are to everything outside the group. And modes of life are very important criteria for dividing up organisms - outward appearance is actually one of the least important criteria - it is so easily changed by selection pressure. So given that all Pokemon have this same basic mode of reproduction/metamorphosis, which can be catalysed by rocks, of all things (and I'll get onto THAT later as well), I'm going to group them in their own class, part of the phylum Arthropoda and a sister-taxon to the classes Insecta, Chelicerata etc etc. This group is cladistically correct because it is monophyletic (nothing that belongs in the group has been left out - no other animals reproduce like Pokemon do)”

… wow. Just wow. You may be “talking out [your] arse” as you say, but that makes perfect sense in a ‘had to look at the dictionary sixty-eight times’ kind of way. :P I’m not sure, but that could very well work. Unfortunately, that’s a bit too much information for my needs and I have nowhere to put it all. Sorry. Professor Birch plays a mild to moderate part of my fic (especially at the beginning), so if I get the chance, can I use him as a mouthpiece for you as he babbles on about a new discover. The only problems are Eevee and Ditto. How do you explain a Pokémon that can evolve into seven completely different species (and don’t say ‘unstable genetic code’ unless that’s actually plausible :P) and a Pokémon that can take the form of anything?

Re: Professor Birch. For some reason, I’ve started seeing him as a Scottish bloke when I’m writing him. Can anyone help me understand why?

“As for the rock catalyst thing, it is possible (not probable, and not likely, but possible) that these magical rocks contain essential elements or compounds that catalyse the chemical processes that cause them to metamorphose, or that stress them into changing, somewhat like bad water conditions force axolotls (which are normally neotenous and happy about it) to undergo the last stage of development and become newts.
This is a poor and depauperate explanation but I'm sort of scraping the bottom of the barrel here.”

No matter as I never use rocks in the game unless I have to (find them fairly pointless really), so I don’t think my characters will use them unless as a last resort for some reason (e.g. the Apocalypse that I have planned). :P

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