A scientific attitude that embraces difference: Paleontology within the Traveling Exhibition Pokémon Fossil Museum

Paleontology is the study of the creatures that existed on Earth in the past. Some of the research undertaken in this field looks at how ancient organisms responded to past environmental changes and tries to predict what may happen on Earth in the future. However, not all of it can make a direct contribution to our daily lives. Revealing the mysteries of paleontology does not make life more convenient, nor does it solve social problems. So, what is the significance of conducting research on paleontology and making its results known to as many people as possible?

While specializing in the evolution and ecology of ammonites, which flourished during the Mesozoic Era, I have also been active in promoting activities related to fossils and paleontology through writing, lectures, and exhibitions. I would like to share my own thoughts, reflecting on my experiences thus far.

Enjoy comparing the "Pokemon Fossil Museum" with paleontology

Previously, I worked as a researcher and curator at the Mikasa City Museum in Hokkaido, where I was also in charge of planning limited-time exhibitions. Of these, the one that I feel most attached to is the Pokémon Fossil Museum. This exhibition was realized as a nationwide touring exhibition by the National Museum of Nature and Science and local museums with the full cooperation of the Pokémon Company and has traveled to 15 cities in Japan so far since July 2021. From May 2026 onward, the exhibition began to expand internationally.

In the popular Pokémon video game series, mysterious creatures called Pokémon appear. Among them are some that went extinct long ago but can be brought back as companions by restoring them from their "Fossils," and others that were thought to be extinct but had quietly survived in small numbers. In the exhibition, we called these the "Fossil Pokémon."

If you look closely at the 28 kinds of Fossil Pokémon featured in the exhibition, you will notice that some of them look very much like ancient organisms known from our world. For example, the Spiral Pokémon "Omanyte" looks very much like the ammonite, the ancient organism I study. Some are similar not only in appearance, but also in the reasons for their extinction and even their ecology.

The Pokémon Fossil Museum is an exhibition where visitors can learn about the latest in paleontology while having fun seeing and comparing Pokémon fossils and paleontological fossils. This exhibition was created with a variety of intentions.

"Different" does not mean "wrong"

In the games, "Evolution," through which one Pokémon changes into another, is a different phenomenon from the biological "evolution" in our world. This is often a topic in high school science classes and university biology lectures, and is often discussed on social networking sites. I have heard it myself in the past. In many cases, it seems to be introduced as an example of something incorrect, with the message that "Pokémon Evolution is wrong" from a biological standpoint. But does "different" really mean "wrong"?

In the first place, the word evolution is used today in everyday life to describe the progress of things, and it is also used as an academic term in other academic fields. In astronomy, for example, the term "evolution of planetary systems" may refer to a different phenomenon than "evolution" in biology. In the exhibition, we explained Pokémon "Evolution" and our "evolution" separately, and wrapped it up by saying, "It seems that this phenomenon works differently in each world."

There are countless Pokémon fans all over the world. Possibly even more than those of paleontology. If we want those many Pokémon fans to come to love paleontology too, telling them that what happens in the Pokémon world is "wrong" would likely only make them lose interest in learning more about paleontology. I came to believe that what matters for getting more people to love paleontology is not to use "science" to cut down "fantasy," but to respect it.

On the other hand, it is an indisputable fact that they are different, and I believe it is important to show this. This is because by putting A and a different B side by side, A can be made relative, and the comparison may lead to a better understanding of it. In the case of "evolution" too, comparison between Pokémon Evolution, which happens "within the same individual," and biological evolution help us understand the fact that biological evolution occurs "at the population level across generations." Being "different" is significant in relativizing things, but there is no need to deny one side in order to explain the other.

"Comparing" added to "seeing"

Not just with evolution, placing Fossil Pokémon and ancient organisms side by side also brings about "a deeper understanding through relativizing." For example, if only a reconstruction of a "primitive bird," which has characteristics of both reptiles and birds, were shown and asked, "what characteristics does it have?" it might be quite difficult to answer.

However, if you place the ancestor of Bird Pokémon "Archen" and its evolutionary form "Archeops," which closely resemble the primitive bird, next to it, perhaps you might notice that the body of the primitive bird has a somber shade of black in comparison to the colorful Archen and Archeops. The reason reconstructions of the primitive bird are drawn in plain dark colors comes from a 2020 study that identified melanosomes in its feathers and, by analyzing their shape, showed that the feathers contained at least some black areas.

Noticing something by looking at two things placed side by side is a completely different experience from simply being told about a finding. In natural science, including paleontology, knowledge advances not by being taught by someone else, but by noticing for yourself something that no one has known before. Placing Pokémon Fossils and paleontological fossils next to each other was a display technique designed to give children the experience of "seeing," "comparing," and "noticing," which are the basics of science.

The Exhibition is a research outcome

Although the museum is also a research institution, I personally feel that this aspect is not always well understood by the public. However, it's clear that the research function is vital to the museum. Simply put, when exhibiting some material, if the identity and characteristics of the material are not clear, it cannot be exhibited.

For example, there are more than 10,000 known species of ammonites. The ammonites to be exhibited must be arranged in some intended order and accompanied by explanatory text after clarifying which group they belong to, from which species they evolved, how they lived, and so on. Only then can an exhibition be established. That is why we are doing research. The same is basically true not only for fossils, but also for plants, insects, animals, rocks and minerals, archaeological artifacts and folk tools, old documents and photographs, and even paintings and other art materials.

At the end of the Pokémon Fossil Museum exhibit, there is a section entitled "Fossil Research: Past and Future." In the "Past" section, we focused on the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus and introduced the evolution of research by comparing it with the Despot Pokémon "Tyrantrum." In the "Future" section, we explained that the goal of paleontology is "to depict all living things from the past."

And as an example of how new discoveries are still being made one by one toward that goal, a new species of ammonite fossil that had just been described at the time was displayed. Many of the specimens used to describe the new species were collected by myself and my colleagues walking in the mountains during our time off from exhibition work, and are one result of the museum's research activities. Through this exhibition, we wanted to reiterate the natural fact that exhibitions held at museums are composed of the museum's research results.

Heteromorph ammonites are not inferior

As I explained at the beginning, my research is to reveal the evolution and ecology of ammonites, and I have discovered three new species so far, including the one displayed at the Pokemon Fossil Museum. They are all called "heteromorphs," with a somewhat unusual coiling pattern.

Until the first half of the 20th century, heteromorph ammonites were sometimes interpreted as an evolutionary dead end, or more directly, as an "evolutionary failure." However, as research advanced, it became clear that even their apparently anomalous coiling follows certain rules, and that this is not caused by disease or abnormal development. It is also now known that heteromorph coiling was not a special feature of the ammonite extinction, and that it survived with what is called "normal" ammonites with plani-spiral coiling up to the time of the Chicxulub impact.

Behind those past misinterpretations was a way of thinking about evolution that treated it as the same thing as progress, which was a linear, teleological, and fatalistic view, along with the idea that there is a ranking of superiority and inferiority among living things. These ideas were eventually applied to human society and developed into an ideology known as "social Darwinism." And it is a fact that throughout history, this was used as the rationale to justify things such as imperialist colonial rule, various forms of discrimination, and war.

How do we understand what is different from ourselves?

To dig up fossils of strange-looking paleontological organisms that look very different from anything we are used to from the stratum of the earth, to record each one, to reveal their life history, and to reveal the mechanism of evolution. Such works are not simply an exercise in reconstructing the past. It is a way of understanding the world, and it connects, at a distance, to the question of how all people can live as fully human beings.

I believe that the significance of unraveling the mysteries of past life phenomena lies at our feet and in nurturing our minds to face others and the world. In today's world, which is increasingly diverse but also prone to fragmentation, it should be especially important how we understand the differences, what attitude we show, and what words we choose when confronted with those who are different from us.

The "Pokémon Fossil Museum" is an exhibition created in the hope that people will develop a gentle eye for different cultures, from fantasy to science, and vice versa.

I hope that, as it steps off Japan and spreads out into the world, it will inspire something in the hearts of all who see the exhibition.