An Introduction to Pokémon Biology

Dr. Laurel Basswood

What are pokémon? Are they animals with magical powers? Emissaries of the gods? Wayfarers from some other world entirely?

The nature of pokémon has fascinated us since ancient times, when worship of the creatures that could call lightning, fire, and ice, bring rain and sunshine alike, was often intermingled with fear at their immense power. It’s only recently that scientific advances have given us the tools to truly explore how pokémon work and what makes them so different from mundane animals like you or I.

Many questions remain, and the field of pokémon research continues to grow, leading to innovations like the pokéball and the PC storage system. This chapter will introduce you to the basics of our current understanding of pokémon biology, as well as a glimpse of what remains unknown.

Pokémon and Infinity Energy

Pokémon have numerous seemingly-supernatural abilities. They can cause earthquakes, tidal waves, and localized hurricanes at will, easily multiple times per day. They can take damage that would easily kill a human and, after a couple hours of rest, stand up and withstand the same again. They can be stored as data, transmitted across the globe, and reconstructed somewhere new without loss or discomfort. All of these characteristics stem from the power source shared by all pokémon, which is known as infinity energy.

As the name suggests, infinity energy seems like an almost unlimited resource that pokémon have found away to tap into. The amount of energy available to them is almost absurd: just one of a pikachu’s thunderbolts contains enough energy to power a typical home for weeks. Pokémon can transmute, and perhaps even create, new matter out of infinity energy alone, a feat that requires more energy than is contained in a modern nuclear warhead. With so much energy at their disposal, pokémon are capable of feats that seem magical.

The scientific definition of “pokémon” is any organism that can use infinity energy to produce attacks. It was written like this, instead of “any organism that can use infinity energy,” to exclude organisms like apricorn trees that have a limited ability to manipulate infinity energy. Even some humans show signs of being able to detect, or have limited ability to work with, infinity energy. Only pokémon, however, are able to metabolize infinity energy and use it to fuel the spectacular battles for which they’re so well-known.

Pokémon represent a kingdom of life. While many appear to be animals, and animals are certainly their closest relatives, in a biological sense they’re radically different, easily as distant from animals as animals are from amoebae or algae. Some biologists argue that they should be classified as a new domain instead, which would suggest an even more dramatic difference, but since their cellular biology remains essentially the same as that of other eukaryotes, most taxonomists have rejected the idea.

Infinity energy itself remains poorly understood. We don’t know what generates it, how it exists in the environment, or even how much of it there is. It represents some fraction of the universe’s dark energy, energy that must exist in order for our observations of the universe line up with our current understanding of natural laws, but which we have been unable to characterize. Some people suggest that “aura,” a concept of life energy that persists in many human cultures, is simply an ancient term for infinity energy, and that those people sensitive to it can identify parts of the environment where it naturally resides. Alternatively, aura may simply represent one kind of infinity energy phenomenon, one particularly familiar to fighting-types.

What is clear about infinity energy is that it exists on a spectrum, like visible light and radio waves. Pokémon can metabolize infinity energy at frequencies clustered around one or two peaks–why not more? No one is sure. Where these peaks lie determines a pokémon’s primary type alignment and thus how the pokémon interacts with all different frequencies of infinity energy. At this point, eighteen different types have been identified–regions of the infinity energy spectrum that have distinct physical properties. However, it is likely that more types exist, and we simply haven’t found enough pokémon that utilize them to make a positive identification.

In addition to being able to absorb infinity energy from the environment, all pokémon also emit a small amount of infinity energy. These pulses contain information about a pokémon and are what devices like a pokédex read when analyzing a pokémon’s characteristics. The infinity energy that a pokémon passively emits is referred to as its energy signature.

The most remarkable feature of a pokémon’s energy signature is that it contains a complete description of the biological organism. That means that if a pokémon’s energy signature is known, its body can be reconstructed from that information alone. This is what allows pokémon storage in pokéballs and similar devices: the pokémon’s physical form is broken down, but since its energy signature remains intact, it can be reconstructed on the fly. The pokémon can also be interacted with in its pure-energy state, which is how healing machines and technical machines operate on pokémon lying dormant in their pokéballs.

Overall, the ability to metabolize infinity energy is a true biological revolution, one that has allowed pokémon to diversify at an incredible rate and invade a huge number of ecological niches. Although such revolutions are rare, we might compare the ability to metabolize infinity energy to the ability to metabolize oxygen. Originally, life was purely anaerobic–not only could early organisms not use oxygen, it was actively toxic to them. Most had no way to even detect its presence, in the same way that mundane animals are totally blind to infinity energy’s existence. When microorganisms appeared that not only resisted oxygen’s damaging effects, but could use it to generate abundant chemical energy, they rapidly rose to prominence. In the same way, we’ve seen pokémon spread across the globe and develop into a multitude of forms, with every sign that we’ll be seeing new and even more spectacular pokémon species arising in the future.

Pokémon and Battling

One of the first thing that springs to mind when thinking of pokémon is pokémon battles, the spectacular contests of strength that have become such an important part of our popular culture. It’s appropriate that battling takes center stage when talking about pokémon, as all pokémon share a drive to battle as deep-seated as their need to eat, sleep, and reproduce.

This is because infinity energy accumulates inside a pokémon’s body, and unless it is discharged and reduced to safe levels, it will begin to interfere with a pokémon’s biological functions and even its physical integrity, a condition known as energy intoxication. The primary way for a pokémon to discharge built-up infinity energy is by using attacks, although battling as such isn’t necessary. Simply attacking an inanimate object will discharge excess energy as well as attacking another pokémon, but battling conveys physical benefits, which we’ll talk about in the “Pokémon Growth and Evolution” section, as well as social ones.

Given the importance of battling to pokémon, it’s no wonder that pokémon are well-adapted to withstanding the injuries that result. They use infinity energy both to reduce the damage suffered by their physical bodies and also to accelerate their bodies’ healing abilities. The faint pokémon undergo when severely injured functions similarly to a coma in humans, a condition that forces the pokémon to stop fighting, moving, or otherwise putting itself at further risk while its body heals. Unlike a coma, however, faints are typically brief and carry little danger to the pokémon. A fainted pokémon will usually revive and be back on its feet within a couple of hours, even in the complete absence of medical treatment.

However, while fainting carries little risk in and of itself, it’s a dangerous condition in the wild because it leaves a pokémon completely vulnerable to opportunistic predators, even mundane animals that typically leave a pokémon well alone. For this reason, wild pokémon almost never battle to the point of fainting, and in fact most battles last for only one or two exchanges of attacks before one combatant flees or surrenders. Some pokémon societies even use fainting as a punishment; one of the beedrill swarms near Viridian is known to gang up on individuals who have committed particularly heinous crimes, such as dishonorable murder or betrayal of the swarm, and force them into fainting. The unconscious offender is then left outside the swarm’s territory under the assumption that something will come along to kill and eat it, the most dishonorable death of all.

This makes the relatively sustained, brutal fighting seen in trainer battles an anomaly to most wild-caught pokémon. There are analogues; some pokémon cultures carry out ritualized battles that result in fainting, typically when determining leadership of their particular group or to assign mating rights. In these cases a fainted pokémon will be watched over by close friends or family until it recovers.

In such cases the pokémon is essentially trusting others with its life, a role that a trainer takes on when caring for pokémon that have fainted in battle. Naturally, many wild pokémon find fainting a terrifying prospect, and the thought that the person watching over them while in such a vulnerable state is a child they barely know doesn’t help matters. For this reason trainers are advised to battle gently with fresh-caught pokémon until enough trust has developed that pokémon won’t be afraid to faint when under their trainer’s care. Even in high-level competitive matches, many trainers prefer to concede when it becomes clear that they’ve lost, rather than subject their pokémon to the trauma of fainting.

Pokémon Growth and Evolution

One of pokémon’s most well-known abilities is evolution, a radical change from one form to another. Of course, this isn’t evolution in the biological sense, but instead a kind of metamorphosis, similar to the change from a caterpillar to a butterfly, but much more rapid and dramatic as a result of drawing on infinity energy.

While battling, pokémon discharge their infinity energy reserves in order to create attacks. However, battle also exposes pokémon to infinity energy released by their opponents. Pokémon absorb small quantities of this energy, which raises their overall infinity energy capacity. Over time, then, they become capable of creating more powerful attacks simply because their reserves of infinity energy grow larger. The amount of infinity energy that a pokémon can store is called its level, which can easily be recognized by pokédexes and other devices capable of reading energy signatures.

The exposure to other pokémon’s energy also influences how pokémon metabolize infinity energy in general. A pokémon that encounters a lot of fire-type attacks, for example, will over time grow resistant to them. This sort of specialization is rare in trained pokémon, which battle highly varied opponents, but common in the wild. For example, pidgey and pidgeotto living in Viridian Forest are known to be less susceptible to electric attacks than those living near Route 1 or Route 2. Some high-level trainers exploit this phenomenon by seeking out repeated battles against particular kinds of opponents, thus developing their pokémon to have specific battle skills rather than accumulating them at random over time.

Once a pokémon’s reserves of infinity energy have grown large enough, it may have enough energy available to evolve. This is the most common form of evolution, recognized by trainers as pokémon evolving once they reach a certain level. However, some species are able to fuel evolution using external sources of infinity energy, the most common of these being the famous “evolution stones.” New evolution catalysts are being discovered all the time. The evolutions enabled by exposure to “evolution helpers” can also occur without them if a pokémon can build up enough infinity energy on its own, but typically the requirement is so high that even pokémon battling with trainers will never be able to reach it.

Although older pokémon naturally tend to be at a higher level and evolutionary stage than younger pokémon, level and evolution aren’t directly linked to maturity. How fast a pokémon levels up and evolves is entirely down to how much it battles, which has more to do with its personality and how often it has the opportunity to fight than it does how long the pokémon has been alive. In the care of a trainer a larvitar may evolve into a tyranitar in a scant few years, at which point it will still, mentally, very much be a child; on the other hand, a wild larvitar may live for decades and be considered a well-respected adult without evolving even once.

Finally, it’s worth noting that there are downsides to a pokémon increasing its energy capacity. While this makes it more powerful in battle, it also forces the pokémon to battle more often in order to burn off enough energy to remain healthy. And battling more often in turn leads to more growth. This can cause problems in the wild especially, where changes in environmental conditions may cause previously-stable sources of battle opponents to dry up unexpectedly. It also can make it difficult for trained pokémon to transition back to the wild life, as they’ve come to rely on having a steady stream of opponents to fight against.

Pokémon Reproduction

Pokémon reproduction fascinates pokémon researchers and schoolchildren alike. Some pokémon pairings, such as the infamous skitty and wailord, seem like they should be biologically impossible. The matter isn’t helped by confusing terminology, which suggests similarities between pokémon and animals that simply don’t exist. The “eggs” pokémon hatch from bear no relation to the eggs produced by animals, and although some pokémon resemble animals, they emphatically are not. There’s nothing bizarre about pokémon like ponyta and rapidash emerging from eggs because, although they appear mammalian, they are anything but.

In fact, pokémon lack reproductive organs entirely. A pokémon’s sex is determined solely by whether or not a pokémon can produce eggs in its final evolutionary stage: if it can, it’s female, and if it can’t, it’s male. The sheer number of pokémon species that appear to lack the ability to create eggs at all indicates how poorly the human concept of biological sex maps onto pokémon as a whole.

A pokémon egg is an energy construct similar to a substitute. The fact that it superficially resembles an animal egg, which arises from a specialized cell or cells, is purely a result of convergent evolution. Like animal eggs, pokémon eggs protect an embryo and provide it with nourishment while it develops. Pokémon make eggs the same way they generate attacks–indeed, “make egg” might as well be classified as an attack, simply one where whether or not a pokémon can use it is important in matters of reproduction. This raises the possibility that a pokémon might be able to learn to create eggs, thus “changing its sex.” There are reports of such sex changes in some wild marill populations, but very little research has been done on this subject as of yet.

A pokémon egg is a thin layer of shell wrapped around a dense core of infinity energy contributed by the female parent. To fertilize the egg, the other parent strikes it with an attack, exposing it to their own energy signature. In many species the attack used is specialized and not utilized except for purposes of reproduction, but this is not necessary; any attack that won’t outright destroy the egg will do. One way or another, the “male” parent’s energy signature combines with the “female” parent’s energy signature embedded in the egg to produce a new energy signature that represents the offspring that will develop. How the energy signatures integrate with one another is a mystery, although there’s clearly some element of randomness involved, since no two offspring of the same parents will be identical.

After an egg has been fertilized, an embryo will form inside, consisting at first of a few cells but growing rapidly through multiple rounds of cell division. The infinity energy provided by the parents kick-starts this process but is rarely enough to see it through to completion. An egg therefore needs to absorb additional infinity energy from the environment before it can hatch.

Some pokémon simply abandon their eggs with no more than a cursory attempt at hiding them and keeping them protected from the elements–evidently there’s enough ambient energy in most environments that an egg left alone can gather enough to complete development and hatch. However, an egg will hatch faster the more infinity energy it is exposed to, and thus many pokémon will carry their eggs with them so they can benefit from the raised levels of infinity energy caused by pokémon battles. Attacking an egg as though it were an opponent usually doesn’t work, as standard battle attacks would destroy it, but keeping the egg in the proximity of active battles will dramatically decrease the amount of time it takes to hatch. Eggs carried by pokémon trainers, who may engage in multiple high-level battles per day, can hatch in days or even hours, rather than the weeks typical of eggs in the wild.

Because pokémon reproduction requires no actual exchange of biological material–all biological information being encoded in the infinity energy the parents provide–pokémon with radically different body plans are perfectly capable of producing viable offspring. However, most pokémon are incapable of breeding with at least some other species. These reproductive differences, which lead to the formation of what trainers call “egg groups,” are a result of differences in infinity energy metabolism rather than differences in body plan.

However, there is one pokémon capable of reproducing with all known pokémon species: ditto. Ditto’s fecundity is a result of its highly advanced ability to manipulate infinity energy, which allows it to create energy constructs with diverse properties. This is necessary for reproduction with certain “genderless” species that typically don’t use eggs at all. Rather than fertilizing an egg, for example, voltorb and electrode create new voltorb by irradiating deactivated pokéballs with infinity energy. Artificial pokémon like golett and Beldum® likewise require some kind of initial “body” to bring to life with infinity energy, as they lack the biological processes necessary for embryonic development. Unlike other species, ditto can not only produce eggs but also simulacra that pokémon with highly specialized reproductive modes will find adequate for breeding.

The lack of physical barriers to breeding between highly divergent pokémon species means that speciation happens much more slowly among pokémon than among other organisms. In fact, based on the classic definition of species as a group of organisms capable of producing fertile offspring, pokémon are actually all a single species, and the various forms we refer to as species would more accurately be termed sub-species or strains. Although aside from ditto there is no one pokémon that can reproduce with any other pokémon, there is usually some path that will allow the two to indirectly reproduce; a mudkip can’t breed with an aron, but an aron can breed with a treecko, which can breed with mudkip.

However, the presence of egg groups does suggest that pokémon are diverging from one another. It may be some time yet, but we should eventually see pokémon that aren’t able to reproduce with all their diverse contemporaries, and this in turn will probably give rise to entirely new forms of life capable of metabolizing infinity energy.

Pokémon Genetics and Epigenetics

Given the extreme permissiveness of pokémon reproduction, a biologist would tend to expect that pokémon genomes are highly similar. This is true. Rather than relying on genetic information to account for their huge diversity, pokémon are much more governed by epigenetics.

It’s not uncommon for animal genomes to encode multiple radically different body plans. A caterpillar is, in a physical sense, very little like a butterfly, and the honeybee genome produces not only the small, sexless workers but the also relatively huge, reproductively active queen. As previously discussed, pokémon evolution is essentially the same as an insect’s metamorphosis, and is achieved in the same way: rather than by altering the underlying genetics of the organism, changing how those genetics are expressed.

Unsurprisingly, given the wildly divergent body plans exhibited by pokémon, epigenetic differences are concentrated in regions containing master regulators that are responsible for the pokémon’s general physical organization during development. By contrast, the regions of the genome that control infinity energy metabolism, what might be called the essence of what makes a pokémon a pokémon, is highly conserved between species, both at a genetic and expression level. There are small differences that probably account for such features as a pokémon’s typing, the rate at which it can increase its infinity energy capacity (how fast it “levels up”), and so forth, but overall this system is essentially the same from one species of pokémon to another.

Pokémon attacks are probably the best-understood example of epigenetic control in pokémon. As far as scientists have been able to determine, every single pokémon encodes the genetic information necessary to produce any kind of attack. The subset that it can actually utilize is determined entirely by the levels of expression of the relevant genes, which ones are activated, and which repressed. This varies between species and also between individuals of the same species. A pokémon can inherit an attack from one or more of its parents, for example; in addition to the genetic information that they provide to their offspring, much of their epigenetic information is also preserved. Technical machines, which manipulate a pokémon’s energy signature directly, can undo the repression of certain genes and thus allow a pokémon to access new attacks. Even exposure to a pokémon that can use a particular attack, referred to as a “tutor,” can at times cause an epigenetic shift and make a pokémon suddenly “learn” an attack it couldn’t previously wield.

Of course, there are some pokémon that lack genetic information entirely. Artificial pokémon like Porygon®, Beldum®, and baltoy have physical but inorganic bodies. Their status as organisms is complicated by the fact that they are, in some cases, able to reproduce with truly biological pokémon. Such pokémon are fascinating because they retain so many key pokémon characteristics, despite having entirely different origins: they use familiar pokémon attacks, have recognizable typings, and can even understand and produce the universal pokémon language.

This suggests that pokémon are more strongly influenced by infinity energy than by the biological information inherited from their distant ancestors. Indeed, many scientists believe that pokémon are evolving away from having physical forms entirely, moving towards becoming pure-energy beings. Ghost pokémon may be an intermediate stage in this process. Although they have physical bodies that retain familiar biological features, they lack the systems necessary to sustain biological life, instead being animated primarily by infinity energy. It’s been suggested that ghosts only have physical manifestations at all because they allow them to interact with our familiar world of matter. In the future we may encounter pokémon species that eschew this ability entirely–or such species may already exist, roaming the wild but undetectable by all our current means of searching.

Conclusion

Pokémon are fascinating and mysterious creatures, and our understanding of them remains rudimentary at best. It’s clear that infinity energy lies at the heart of what makes pokémon both so mysterious and so successful, and it’s perhaps infinity energy that we understand least of all. I hope this introduction has given you an idea both of what we know about pokémon and how much more we have to discover. In later chapters we’ll consider the relationship between pokémon and mundane animals in greater detail. How might pokémon have arisen from creatures like you and me? How do they interact with their environment? And, ultimately, how have they been shaped by their relationship with humans?