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pokémon, characteristics of life, biology

Re: pokémon, characteristics of life, biology

this thread: I should not do things just before going to bed.

iv breeding: had a braindead moment there.

biology: I think I had an objection to homeostasis and adaptation, but I can't remember the details and now it sounds silly.

(please silently ignore this.)
 
Re: pokémon, characteristics of life, biology

Well, adaptation is the most questionable one since we don't directly know anything about Pokémon genetics and theoretically they could all be created creatures whose genomes don't mutate or who only inherit a few very specific genes that are not a major factor in determining their appearance, but a few Pokémon have still been shown or stated to have adapted, in a Darwinian sense, to specific environments (Shellos, some anime examples I can't name). Furthermore, this would not contest whether they are "alive", but merely whether the characteristics of life as we know them need modification when applied to the Pokémon world.
 
Re: pokémon, characteristics of life, biology

I've got a good one for Adaption. Gastrodon? Its body changes based on where it lives, although they're both the same pokémon at heart? And Shikijika (the little deer), whose color changes based on the season. If that's not adapting to the environment, then what is?
 
Re: pokémon, characteristics of life, biology

Okay, so they bent the rules on what can fuck what, but I mean it would be relatively pointless if only the same species could breed with each other. Additionally, there are *some* real-life animal species that can breed with each other and produce offspring (in some cases, even the offspring are fertile)

What I don't understand is how you can say two distinct species aren't different species anymore because they can have a baby...?

By definition of species. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I remember a species defined as being able to produce fertile offspring with members of its own species only. For example, lions and tigers can produce ligers, but ligers can't breed, so lions and tigers aren't of the same species
 
Re: pokémon, characteristics of life, biology

Maybe all Pokémon are the same species, and each different kind is a different breed adapted to a different niche.
 
Re: pokémon, characteristics of life, biology

Maybe all Pokémon are the same species, and each different kind is a different breed adapted to a different niche.

That would explain skitty being able to breed with wailord, but wouldn't explain legendaries, genderless pokemon, why ditto can breed with almost all pokemn and pokemon who are in different egg groups (ex. buizel can't breed with turtwig)
 
Re: pokémon, characteristics of life, biology

Some Pokémon are too above it, some are, you know, genderless, Ditto is just a mass of stem cells, and some Pokémon are more removed than others.
 
Re: pokémon, characteristics of life, biology

By definition of species. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I remember a species defined as being able to produce fertile offspring with members of its own species only. For example, lions and tigers can produce ligers, but ligers can't breed, so lions and tigers aren't of the same species
... of course they're not the same species. Nobody's claiming they are. Also, some ligers/tigons are fertile, actually.
 
Re: pokémon, characteristics of life, biology

Egg groups would simply be groups of similarity within which the Pokémon can have offspring.

But either way you can't really discuss Pokémon interbreeding as analogous to lion/tiger interbreeding, because they clearly work by very different principles: the resulting offspring is not a hybrid of the two, but a full member of the female's species. Their genetics clearly work very differently from ours and definitions humans have made to explain life on Earth, such as "a species is a group of individuals that can have fertile offspring with one another", are not necessarily going to be useful or informative in the Pokémon world.

If you're going to say "But the offspring being of the female's species is just a game mechanic", well, so is the entire interbreeding feature; if you really want to view Pokémon genetics as analogous to ours, you might as well just consider them to truly be different species and assume that Skitty can only breed with Wailord in video games.
 
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Re: pokémon, characteristics of life, biology

Skitty can breed with Wailord?

How in the world is this even possible?! Kittens breeding with whales?!
 
Re: pokémon, characteristics of life, biology

It's kind of a meme? There are even squiby adoptables of it, one of which I made :B
 
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