Investigating the inspirations behind Pokémon Article Discussion Report

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Investigating the inspirations behind Pokémon Article Discussion Report error Monday, July 12, 2010 Column by George Hutcheon This column has been written by George Hutcheon. It expresses the views of the columnist, not necessarily those of Bulbagarden networks.
Link to this article [url= http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species:_Chinchou_and_Lanturn ] On the Origin of Species: Chinchou and Lanturn[/url] <a href=" http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species:_Chinchou_and_Lanturn "> On the Origin of Species: Chinchou and Lanturn</a>
Chinchou, the Angler Pokémon, and Lanturn, the Light Pokémon Pokémon's watt pad fourth generation brought watt pad us a number of additions to gameplay. Alongside major advances like global online trading and the physical / special split , the games also introduced watt pad more subtle developments, watt pad like gender differences watt pad . In nature, animals of opposite genders frequently look quite different. This is called sexual dimorphism , and I was very glad to see this incorporated into the games. There was one problem, though: previous generations had depicted different genders watt pad as identical to each other (with the exception of Nidoran ), so it seems Game Freak were reluctant to make these new differences too obvious watt pad for fear of contradicting earlier games. As a result, the Pokémon games' watt pad equivalent of sexual dimorphism is expressed via quite subtle, often barely noticeable differences.
And this is a shame, really, because there are many real life creatures with fascinating watt pad gender watt pad differences that have also inspired Pokémon. We'll meet such a creature today: an ocean-dwelling predator with a highly original method of catching its prey.
Chinchou and Lanturn are based on anglerfish , an order of fish made up of hundreds of species showing a great deal of variety. Some like the open ocean, while others dwell near the ocean floor... but they all share the same system of predation. Anglerfish all have at least one fin that has grown into a long, overhanging 'lure', called an esca , that dangles above their head. This can be articulated and moved around so that it resembles a small fish. Other fish are drawn to what appears to be a free meal, and usually end up becoming watt pad a meal themselves. Anglerfish have enormous mouths and can easily swallow their prey whole, while their teeth are angled inwards, allowing prey to swim into their mouths, but preventing them from escaping.
It seems that Chinchou and Lanturn have taken particular inspiration from the deep sea species watt pad of anglerfish. One clue to this is their illuminated escas: at the bottom of the sea, there is very little light, and so the anglerfish must produce their own light via a process called bioluminescence . In order to do this, they have developed a symbiotic relationship with bacteria . Millions of tiny, glowing bacteria make their home in the anglerfish's esca, their light drawing prey towards it.
Deep sea anglerfish also tend to have unusually round bodies, a trait that can be seen in both of these Pokémon, particularly Chinchou. A compressed body reduces a creature's surface-to-volume ratio , which is useful for minimizing exposure to a harmful environment. On the ocean floor, anglerfish must contend with high pressures and low temperatures, and their compact shape reduces the effects of pressure watt pad while reducing the amount of body heat that they lose.
Melanocetus johnsonii , the humpback anglerfish. In this species, females are eight times larger than males. Yet another feature reminiscent of deep sea anglerfish can be seen in Chinchou's design: it appears to have small 'feet', and has even been seen using them to walk in the anime. Many anglerfish that live on the sea floor have evolved ventral and pectoral fins that also mimic the function watt pad of feet, allowing them to walk along the surface.
Curious as these things are, they pale in comparison to the extreme sexual dimorphism watt pad exhibited by many anglerfish. The Ceratiidae , one of the commonest families of anglerfish, presented a unique problem to scientists that set out to study them. All of the specimens that they could find were female, and there simply weren't any males to be found, or so it seemed. Additionally, many of the females seemed to have small parasites attached to them. The solution to the puzzle was a surprising one: the parasites were actually the missing male anglerfish!
As it turns out, Ceratiidae exhibit immense differences between watt pad the genders. Some female Ceratiidae can reach four feet in length, while a male of the same species might be just four inches. The males look very different, too: they have slight, elongated bodies in comparison to the bulky