Did domestic canine Pokemon descend from wilder Pokemon like Mightyena, or is there no real evolutionary history for the overall canine family? (I do hope this makes science. Biology and it’s vocabulary was not my strong suit in school.)

They did indeed! In fact, mightyena are themselves descendants from the same common ancestor as growlithe, lillipup, and so forth.

I could go further into detail as to when, roughly, each species diverged, but this may overcomplicate matters a bit. The important thing to know is that, indeed, mightyena is very closely related to the “dog” pokémon—possibly, even, to the point where a proto-mightyena might have been the common ancestor and that human domestication led to dog-like pokémon adapting into their own species.

It’s actually quite interesting to look at, actually. Each of the dog-like species share similar traits, but it’s very easy to tell why they were domesticated based on what types they’ve become. But that’s neither here nor there, I suppose.

What causes pokemon to be “shiny” and why is it so rare?

Genetic mutations, more or less. You see, anonymous, very occasionally, the process of combining genetics during breeding doesn’t quite work out as intended. Recessive genes here or there get triggered, resulting in the abnormal production of one pigment or another, thus producing an alternate colorization you know as “shiny.” It’s very similar, in fact, to albinism or the purple kecleon phenomenon.

The reason why it’s so rare, meanwhile, is in part because it’s all determined by recessive genes. In order to produce a shiny, you must first have two parents who have the “shiny” gene, and even then, the shiny egg requires a very precise combination of their genes. Otherwise, without that perfect combination, the dominant genes for colorization will be expressed instead, resulting in a rather normal-looking pokémon. This is, of course, oversimplifying genetics, but that’s the basic gist of it.

Besides the fact that shininess is determined by an extremely precise combination of genes, it’s also not an ideal state for a pokémon to be in. With some species, an unusually colored pelt may render a specimen incapable of camouflaging properly, which could either put the entire colony in danger by calling a predator’s attention or make hunting difficult by making the predator easier to spot. In other species, the alternate colorization may be linked to other defects, such as blindness or photosensitivity (or, in the case of plant-like pokémon, an inability to photosynthesize), all of which make life difficult for the individual, rather than the colony as a whole. In either case, some species, particularly those that form small colonies in extreme environments, may take to culling oddly colored hatchlings due to any of these reasons, which increases their rarity.

In other words, shininess is really only a trait valued among domestic pokémon. The reason why it’s so rare is because of the difficulty in breeding such a specimen and the unlikelihood of its survival in the wild.

I can accept that some pokemon are only male or only female species, but what’s with the weird gender ratios in some pokemon, for example the starters being male almost 90% of the time? At first I suspected that they gave out mostly males and kept females to breed, but it’s still this way when breeding and in the wild. What is the explanation?

It depends largely on the species, anonymous.

Take the combee line, for example. An unfertilized combee egg hatches as a drone combee—or, in other words, a male. However, very occasionally, the vespiquen of the hive will decide that a replacement queen will soon be needed, so she’ll have one of her combee consorts fertilize one of her eggs, thus producing a male. All combee and vespiquen undergo the same process of mating up until the point where the male fertilizes the female; it’s just that in the combee line’s case, the fertilization is more of a conscious effort, rather than the next logical step of the process. The exact same behavior is also apparent in the anorith line, although specimens within these two species face additional issues stemming from the fact that they are “fossil” pokémon. Similar behavior also occurs in the togepi line because the prevalence of males ensures that female togepi survive long enough to become viable breeding partners.

Strangely enough, this behavior is also shown in the snorlax line, although this isn’t because of strategy in colonial distribution but instead because the act of fertilization expends more energy than a snorlax is willing to give up. Consequently, snorlax have evolved to always produce viable eggs; it’s just that unfertilized ones will, likewise, always be male. As for why it’s always males and not females, this is likely a product of adaptation as well: fewer females means fewer clutches. While this could be seen as a means of protecting snorlax food sources (in that fewer eggs means fewer snorlax to feed), it’s actually also a statement of how much energy the snorlax species is willing to expend: it literally takes more energy to lay eggs in the first place than the snorlax are capable of spending.

Conversely, many predominantly female species, including most fairy-types and a few feline pokémon, rely heavily on their female populations to support a colony. Females may breed as well as hunt, build nests, defend the colony, and other essential tasks, while males—though valuable in defending the colony as well—may be seen largely as breeding stock first and foremost. As a result, these species have adapted to produce mostly females to fill these roles. Either that, or in some cases—such as the gothita, luvdisc, clefairy, jigglypuff, and litleo lines—the mother of the clutch is capable of detecting and culling male eggs in order to artificially control the population.

Outside of gender significance to a population, “fossil” pokémon face similar issues to the combee line, where males greatly outnumber the females. In their case, it’s largely because of genetic damage sustained during the resurrection process. In fact, many of the fossils that were initially revived showed signs of originally being female; it’s just that their genetic codes were rendered incomplete. Thus, when mating with another female, it’s more or less a gamble with fossil pokémon. Either the two specimens are capable of combining genetic codes to produce a successful female … or they don’t.

Meanwhile, many of the starters, some fighting-types, relicanth, and eevee are not affected by any of the above but instead by temperature during incubation. If an egg is kept cold (but not cold enough to render it incapable of developing), then the pokémon inside will be able to retain its female sex chromosome long enough to hatch into a female. However, the window of temperature between too cold and too warm for a female tends to be very narrow for these pokémon, and consequently, it’s far, far more likely that the temperature of the egg will be raised high enough to force the fetal pokémon to change its sex chromosomes and, essentially, hatch as a male.

Other lines, such as the abra line, seem to be affected by a variation of this, wherein it’s actually the exposure to psychic radiation that causes the switch, rather than temperature alone.

In short, there are quite a few factors that go into breeding and gender ratios, anonymous, but this should hopefully summarize as many of them as possible.

What do you think of the theory that claims all pokemon originally came to our world from space?

That depends on your definition of “originally,” your view of legendaries, and whether or not you’d like to be part correct.

First and foremost, if you believe in Sinnohan legend and if you consider legendaries to be progenitors of the Kingdom Pokémonica, Arceus, creator of the universe, would have technically come from space, as Earth didn’t exist when it came into being. As all pokémon are, according to this same legend, descended from Arceus, it stands to reason that pokémon as a whole have extraterrestrial origins on a distant level.

However, if you don’t believe in these legends and if you don’t wish to be rather smart about it, there is strong evidence supporting the idea that the earliest members of certain pokémon came from space. For example, lunatone and solrock are composed of minerals that are identical to those of meteorites, and the composition of the beldum line strongly resemble that of asteroids. Additionally, there is historical evidence that other, flesh-based pokémon such as the elgyem and clefairy lines may have ridden meteors to Earth.

But to say that all pokémon came from space may be a bit absurd, especially if you don’t subscribe to the idea that all pokémon were created by the legendaries. There are some pokémon that simply cannot have come from space, as nothing in either their physiology or behavior suggests that they have.

That and, well, humans were responsible for the creation of quite a few pokémon, so it’d be unfair to say they were ever extraterrestrial.

…unless you believe humans are aliens. Which actually is a rather interesting theory with stronger evidence to back it up than the idea that every single pokémon came from another world.

Are certain pokemon, for example rock and steel types like Geodude, Metang, Roggenrolla and Magneton silicon based life forms? Or are all pokemon carbon based?

Yes, it’s true that some pokémon actually differ in composition from the more traditional carbon-based class. However, it’s a bit more complicated than one might think.

To be a bit more specific, only very certain pokémon under very particular conditions are silicon-based. It’s true that many of these are rock- or ground-types, but in addition, they’re not the ones that have even trace amounts of tissue. Putting it another way, if a pokémon possesses flesh-based organs, then it’s actually a mostly carbon-based life form. This includes pokémon such as geodude and onix. Likewise, steel-types such as probopass or the beldum line are actually quite literally steel and are thus also both iron- and carbon-based.

When you get into species that have either extraterrestrial or manmade origins or that are solid rock—such as solrock, lunatone, the baltoy line, and the roggenrola line—then you begin to encounter silicon-based life. It is also said that, being literal embodiments of their respective elements, legendaries such as Zygarde, Regirock, and Landorus are all silicon-based as well, even though one of them, Landorus, is apparently made of flesh. The exception to this rule is Diancie, as it is a living diamond and is thus carbon-based.

Then you have sableye, which eats rocks to the point where much of its body is pure precious stone, despite it not possessing the elemental affinity for the rock-type. (Although to be fair, whether or not it’s considered a silicon-based life form depends entirely on what gems comprise its diet, so whether or not it counts is up for debate.)

Hey Bill, what’s the best scientific explanation for why having a Pokemon with Flame Body in the party reduces the incubation time of Pokemon Eggs?

Pokémon with Flame Body are essentially walking incubators. While actual portable incubators exist, pokémon are at least sentient and capable of maintaining and protecting eggs far better and more consistently than an incubator. Or to put it in other words, pokémon possess instincts that allow them to care for eggs by default, and with the amount of crossbreeding each species is capable of, specimens with Flame Body understand that every egg has a different set of needs, whereas humans only have a general idea of such (and incubators don’t typically have any idea of that at all). So when you allow a pokémon with Flame Body to care for an egg, they’re capable of cutting down on incubation time, simply because they not only know how to care for the egg instinctually (and thus know, for example, the type of bedding an egg requires, how to clean it, and so forth), but they also regulate their own body temperature to meet the egg’s needs.

It should be noted that while all pokémon know how to care for an egg, the reason why those with Flame Body are especially good at it is because not every pokémon is capable of emitting and controlling their levels of body heat with the same level of precision as a Flame Body pokémon. Even other fire-types are not quite as exact.

The same goes for pokémon with Magma Armor, surprisingly enough. Perhaps because of their understanding of the makeup of their body, pokémon with Magma Armor are also capable of caring for an egg by way of maintaining the constant, precise temperature needed to hatch it. However, unlike pokémon with Flame Body, Magma Armor specimens do not do so by regulating their own body temperature. Instead, they do so by realizing they perhaps should maintain a very specific distance from said egg.

Is there any difference between the psychic powers of the few humans who can use them and the abilities of psychic types?

Superficially, not much. Both psychic humans and pokémon are largely capable of the same basic abilities: teleportation, telekinesis, telepathy, precognition, and so on and so forth. The difference is in power. While some pokémon possess abilities of seemingly limitless scope and strength, humans are by and large hindered by their own psycho-physiological makeup. For this reason, the strongest human psychics really only possess abilities that are on par with the likes of mime jr., smoochum, and other relatively weaker psychic-types in terms of strength. The only exception (who’s been recorded, anyway) is Sabrina of Saffron City, but even Sabrina admits she’s uniquely powerful.

More importantly, though: pokémon as a whole possess a unique trait that sets them apart from any other living being on the planet, and that is their ability to organize their respective elements into special, identifiable techniques we humans know as moves. This is also why, no matter how incredibly strong humans can be, they can’t execute normal- or fighting-type moves. We just don’t have the capacity for translating our efforts into consistent maneuvers like that. So although both humans and gardevoir or alakazam or so forth are capable of using telekinesis, we are not capable of controlling our telekinesis with the consistent strength and precision needed to execute Psychic.

In other words, one could say that although we may be powerful in our own rights, humans are slightly weaker and certainly more primitive than pokémon when it comes to channeling and controlling the elements.

Do pokemon actually lay eggs? Or is that just bird/reptile/fish like pokemon? Do mammalian pokemon give live bvirths?

With the exception of legendary pokémon, all known species lay eggs—and the legendaries are only an exception because we don’t actually know how they reproduce.

For this reason, most mammal-like pokémon have more in common with monotremes like the platypus than they do with their “animal counterparts,” as it were.

I left my Wailord and Dedenne in the daycare yesterday for about an hour while I was training my other pokemon and when i went to pick them up, the man at the daycare said they had an egg? How did this happen? The daycare man said he doesn’t know how it got there so I thought maybe you had an explanation or a theory. Is there something he isnt telling?

Well, anonymous, when a male pokémon and a female pokémon in the same “egg group”—or collection of species that can, for some reason as of yet fully understood by scientists, crossbreed—love each other very much, the male and female will mate. This is a multi-step process that differs from species to species, so I can’t entirely form a generalized statement as to how the first steps work. Some pokémon begin the mating process with a dance; others simply … get right into it.

However, once the initial stages of mating are complete, the mating cycle begins to undergo a rather uniform process. It begin with the female forming the interior of the egg in her ovary, then coating this egg with a calcium-based shell in her uterus. This entire leg of the journey may last only a couple of hours from the end of a successful mating ritual. During this time, the male (or, in some cases, both partners) will begin work on a nest using whatever materials are available at the time.

After the egg and nest are complete, then you have the copulation stage. In this stage, the male will mount the female and deposit sperm in her cloacal folds via what’s known to biologists as a “cloacal kiss.” In cases where the female is much smaller than the male (such as in the case of a wailord male and dedenne female), this is achieved by having the female carefully tuck herself under the male. The male will typically give the female enough room to breathe, but it still is a risk to the female’s life and not a process that scientists recommend for the well-being of the pokémon. Conversely, in the cases of a female that is much larger than her mate (such as in the case of a wailord female and dedenne male), the female simply rolls over and allows the male to access her cloaca from above.

Once fertilized, the female will proceed to lay the egg and incubate it until it’s retrieved.

As a note, although in the Kingdom Animalia, copulation among egg-laying creatures only needs to happen once, as females may retain sperm in their cloacal folds for multiple fertilization instances, in Kingdom Pokémonae, the sperm will typically be spent after one use, which means the act of breeding—including the practice of breeding for specimens ideal for battling (which tends to be a popular practice among trainers)—will require multiple copulation sessions in order to produce multiple fertilized eggs.

In short, your wailord and dedenne [CENSORED]

I got through an entire article about the copulation habits of pokémon, and you censor that? —Bill

Well, yes, up until your summary, your article was purely scientific. Now you’re just asking for angry letters from parents. —LH

What do humanoid pokemon such as gardevoir and gallade eat? I’d assume humanoid pokemon were omnivorous like us but at the same time the thought of a family of ralts ripping another pokemon to shreds with their teeth (or psychic abilities) is horrifying.

It largely depends on the humanoid pokémon in question. For example, when it comes to the ralts line, you are very astute in assuming they wouldn’t be able to hunt, anonymous. Or, rather, they can’t consume anything with enough of a nervous system to register pain. Therefore, plants and many invertebrates—especially worms, most insects, nematodes, and (for specimens who make their homes close to the sea) sponges and very basic sea life—are fair game to any psychic-type pokémon.

However, with humanoid pokémon of other elements, diets can vary rather wildly. Fighting-types, poison-types, and steel-types are typically carnivorous, for example, as their muscle structure and lifestyles dictate that they need a high intake of proteins found only in meat. Likewise, humanoid grass-types (i.e., cacturne) are typically partly photosynthetic and partly carnivorous. In these cases, their cells possess chlorophyll, but they often live in harsh environments where it’s impossible for them to obtain nutrients from soil alone.

And then you have sableye, which eats rocks.