Not many reptiles have that system; just crocodilians (23 species) and some chelonians IIRC. Lizards (over 4000 species) have mostly chromosome-regulated sex differentiation; while birds (as close to lizards as crocodiles; and Over Nine Thousand species) mostly go by sexual selection. Lizards do odd as fuck things with their reproduction, so it is all fine and dandy.

Oh, and having some fun with the nervous system of Deino. ^_^

yeah they do. I used that one all female species of lizard as the basis for how the Chansey line reproduces.

And that species is the one of the few that do that all the time (unless you bring a male of another species; then they mate and may or may not work); there is a recorded case of a female Komodo dragon doing the same thing, just because she could. So yeah, you can raise a clone army of Komodo dragons...

...

Male-only species are harder to explain. Tauros can be explained with Miltank and Rufflet with Vulaby, but, what about the Hitmons, or Bert and Ernie?

I assume they seek out hidden populations of Ditto or something.

edited 10th Mar '11 1:53:25 PM by Neo_Crimson

That... really doesn't explain Bert and Ernie though.

...Bert and Ernie?????????? What did I miss again?

Also will be gone for a couple of hours to prepare an initial version of our favourite chinchilla Pokémon. What would be adequate binomial names for them? (I'm not sure I'll cover evolution too deeply as the Shiny Stone is one of the topics I have yet to research at large. Also, does anyone except me get Neat Freak vibes from them or am I just exaggerating?)

That means they have to be inmortal, and have been around since ever!

...

Oh god, I love getting high on sugar and caffeine.

But yeah, those are things that need to be tackled, specially when the male-female relation is not quite "official":

Tauros and Miltank may be domesticated versions of Bouffalant, for example, could explain the oddness and why those two are always found near farms or in Safari areas.

Vullaby and Rufflet, they could be a quite sexually dimorphic species of which males and females come together only to mate.

Then, we still have the issues of Kangaskhan, Petilil and Jynx.

EDIT: Bert and Ernie = The Judo and Karate pair of Pokemon, Throw and Sock homophones that I cannot spell.

And the chinchillas, they are meant to be Neat Freaks. In the anime, Bianca caught one because IT HAD TO CLEAN A POKE BALL.

Anyway, I'm using a trinomial name for the Deino line (I could squeeze more info in the name that way), is there anything wrong with that?

edited 10th Mar '11 2:28:45 PM by Eriorguez

"throw a sock"? I'm definitively not familiar with that idiom. What were GF high on for those names?

Sock, as in "sock'em". A LAME name, anyway, they shouldn't have fired the good translator.

^ I don't see why not. We seem to be all over the board with scientific names, so using a modified form shouldn't be an issue. A lot of us don't even bother to come up with them.

Pretty close to my favorite anime capture, there.

Well, guys, I think I'll be starting up my article on Brock some time this weekend.

Any pointers for what should be done in this sort of article? I mean, writing an article on a notable individual is somewhat different from writing one about a species of superpowered wild animal; what would you say I should include?

Probably Biography, Occupation, and Significance, at least.

Huh. Found a book in the second Gym, "The Biology of Oshawott". "The scalchop on its belly is very hard and grows from its bellybutton."

Has Eevee been done yet? I lurv Eevee and would like to help out if I could.

Eevee is currently pegged as a collab article. So we won't be farming it out to any one contributor. You're more than welcome to throw out ideas about Eevee though (seeing as we've barely talked about it)...

We'll all be doing Eevee together, probably.

I'm expanding/rewriting the Unown article.

I wrote it. I can do that.

edited 10th Mar '11 5:54:08 PM by PataHikari

@ the Biology of Oshawott-

FFFFFFFFFFUUUUU-

Now I need to think up a new explanation.

Corneous secretion? The head shell of Samurott may be the same thing.

So the thing is capable of breaking off and regenerating...

Okay, so what do you think?

Deino Line

Morphs [Oak Catalog #]

• Deino [633] (Cryptodraco melanoculus monocephalus)
• Zweilous [634] (C. m. bicephalus)
• Hydreigon [635] (C. m. cephalocheirus)

Notable Biology

Deino is a notable specimen upon the generally biologically bizarre Dragon type: They are somewhat small, quadrupedal predatory animals, with a stubby tail and a body covered with purple scales, with a coating of black protofeathers over its shoulders, neck and the back of the head. Said coating is especially dense at the top of the head, making a tall spike-like protrusion, and making Deino appear to have a bowl cut, covering its eyes. While said covering seems to be the cause behind this Pokémon's blindness, that's not the case: The eyes of Deino, colored in a deep black, are not functional, with retinal cells still in development. Deino compensates for that lack of eyesight with formidable senses of smell and hearing, a curious (yet aggressive) demeanor, and a primitive shape of sonar system; this Dragon is a noisy creature, and its chilling snarls pay an important role as intimidating and confusing factors in its hunting methods; a somewhat cute, small-ish creature that more often than not bites a wall is not the image most people have of a fearsome predator.

The most striking feature of this Pokémon, however, lays on the anatomy of its nervous system. Deino’s brain has two key chacteristics: First, there is no crossing-over of nervous pathaways: The right hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the body; the left hemisphere controls the left side. The same applies to the (poorly developed) eyes: There is no optic chiasm. The other important character is that both hemispheres send down, alongside the spinal cord, axons normally found in the corpus callosum in other creatures. Those axons meet in an associative ganglion, found at shoulder level, surrounding the spinal cord before the thickening of said structure in the area where nerves controlling the arms leave it, and protected by an enlargement of the first dorsal vertebrae (due to the bodies of this line being quite compact, this shows no noticeable effect on movility), process the information, and send it to the opposite cerebral hemisphere it came from. Said ganglion also innerves two areas, each between the shoulder and the neck, under the coat, which contain accessory (and most of the time closed) respiratory openings, and invaginations of the stomach that produce extra quantities of enzymes and acid if the meal Deino took was copious. The neurons of this Pokémon also show remarkable plasticity, and generalized ability to duplicate if the need arises, as well as a solid gliar system.

Upon evolving into Zwelious, this Pokémon increases in size and relative bulk. It adapts a sprawling posture, despite its limbs becoming stronger; two parallel rows of scales on its belly become pink, two small and hidden crests in its back develop into protofeather covered wings, and the spike-like tuft on top of its heads becomes bifurcated. Heads, because Zwelious’ most striking feature is that it has two heads. Each head contains half a brain, left or right hemispheres (as well as left or right basal ganglia, midbrain, cerebellum and medulla). The hypothalamus, hypophysis and pineal gland are localized in a single head, but the other half of the brain still has connections with the hypothalamus thanks to the neck ganglion. The hearing of Zwelious is one of the best of all Pokémon, thanks to each head having two ears and therefore an increased contrasting ability. It is still blind, and in the rare case the eyes are seen, each head has only one, with the other socket housing a pineal gland and being sealed closed. While the heads may compete with each other, resulting in Zwelious ending up eating too much, it is still a single individual, and whoever decides to mess with a single head doesn’t have a bright near future. Its behaviour doesn’t differ from Deino’s much, apart from an ability to glide that comes handy in more open spaces, and its even more noisy nature, complete with stereophonic qualities.

The final stage, Hydreigon, is the sexually mature stage, as well as the most different from the young Pokémon: The two heads it had as a Zwelious merge back into one, yet this time, a more direct connection between the hemispheres is made. The eyes finish their development, and, due to the bowl cut spreading out, the true shape of the head is visible: Lizard-like and intimidating, with developed supraorbitary crests, and black, soulless eyes that give off a discomforting feeling, and not without reason: Those eyes can see radiation both in the ultraviolet and infrared spectrums (as well as visible light), and have very high sensitivity and adaptability: If you can see Hydreigon, it had already seen you a while before. Through the wall, the infrared is noticeable; and there is nothing to say about when it first heard you. Hydreigon also develops two extra pairs of wings, allowing it to be airborne most of the time, and its tail becomes far more formidable while its limbs become weaker, its forelimbs in particular being hidden by the protofeather covering. To compensate for this, the innervated spots it already possessed in the shoulders when it was a Deino develop into pseudo-heads, complete with eyes, ears and noses, as well as mouth and both respiratory and digestive access. However, such heads only have a coordinative ganglion instead of a brain, and it is up to the large neck ganglion to send the information those “heads” receive to the brain, and send them the cerebral orders.

Another character of Hydreigon is its preference for special attacks, in contrast to its physical-based previous stages; but that doesn’t mean it will react to physical combat in the same way as, say, Volcarona: Hydreigon is classified by all branches of the Pokémon Leage as a pseudo-legendary Pokémon: A Pokémon that, despite being a relatively common species and part of an evolutionary line, has power in par with or even surpassing that of some legendary Pokémon; extreme caution has to be employed when facing or commanding this creature.

The final notable element of the biology of this Pokémon is the time it takes to grow out of the Deino stage, best shown in an experiment done as part of an extensive study by several professionals: A Deino was raised alongside a Dratini, a Larvitar, a Bagon and a Gible, under equal and favorable conditions and receiving equal and favorable treatment. While the growth rate of all five Pokémon seemed to be the same, and the other four, also stages of pseudo-legendary Pokémon, are notorious late-evolvers, Deino didn’t evolve into Zwelious until after Gible had completed its evolution into Garchomp, and about the same time Bagon completed its evolution into Salamence. Dratini and Larvitar were still at the Dragonair and Pupitar stages at that point, respectively, but finished their development soon afterwards, while Zwelious took a bit longer to become Hydreigon. Still, despite what other were lead to belive, said evolution did not require any special circumstance, only time and training, disproving beliefs in the same way the truth about the evolution of Larvesta was discovered. Speaking of said line, Hydreigon seems to antagonize Volcarona without any provocation, and generally isn’t in good terms with Tyranitar or Haxorus either.

Habitat

Deino and Zwelious are cave-dwellers, employing their well-developed hearing to crawl through passageways stalking their prey. The Unova Victory Road is the most well-known Deino territory.

Hydreigon is an aerial creature, although it makes its nest in caves, preferably in mountainous regions.

Diet

Those Pokémon are generally regarded as carnivorous, but are VERY Big Eaters, and will readily jump to and try to eat ANYTHING that moves and is not considered friend (or cared by a friend); quite dangerous in this regard. In their natural habitat, Woobat is the preferred prey of Deino, mostly due to being immune to its psychic attacks, but will readily attack Heatmor and scavenge Durant. Zweilous will take on larger prey such as Swoobat, while Hydreigon is fine with whatever prey it can find, but seems pretty fond of Braviary and Mandibuzz.

Hazards

They will try to eat you and your loved ones unless raised from very young and taught to respect other individuals specifically. A Deino born alone will not see ANYTHING as friendly, and will try to kill and eat any other living being; there are known incidents of psychopathic Deino systematically killing the crew of the ship that was carrying the egg from which they hatched.

Female Hydreigon, already territorial and aggressive, will become ten times more dangerous if caring for her eggs. And the poor unfortunate souls that dare to steal or destroy those eggs will learn the hard way why said mother is called pseudo-legendary, and the Brutal Pokémon: A group of poachers once destroyed the whole batch of eggs in front of such a mother, and managed to get away, and though themselves safe. That though dissipated when they realiced the Hydreigon had followed them, due to one of them being casually impaled by her tail, then torn into two by the “head-hands”.

Courting and Childrearing

Hydreigon is the sole sexually mature stage and courting is pretty much nonexistent: If two individuals of different sex meet, they will mate, then get away from each other. 3 to 5 eggs are laid a week after mating, and those will hatch after 2 more weeks, with the female Hydreigon paying close attention to them. Once they hatch, the newborn Deino will imprint on each other and on their mother, who will bring them food. Afterwards, the Deino will go separate ways into the depths of caves, and likely won’t see any other of their kind until they are fully grown and look for a mate.

Social Structure

This whole line is made up of solitary creatures. They will respect their siblings or equivalent (in captivity), but, otherwise, anything they meet will be treated as food. Adult Hydreigon of the same sex will fight on sight. Adult Hydreigon of different sex will mate on sight. Anything else will be killed on sight, unless it is respected.

Anything else to add? References to handpuppets or Geetchis [sic]?

edited 10th Mar '11 8:51:01 PM by Eriorguez

PARAGRAPHS.

That was the first thing that came to mind for the Notable Biology portion. Without paragraphs, it's just one enormous Wall of Text that intimidates the reader and makes them less likely to read throughout the entire thing.

Another thing is that uh... there are quite a bit of grammar and spelling mistakes.

edited 10th Mar '11 8:34:08 PM by CalamityJane

Fixed, blame copy-pasting and Microsoft Word sucking.

Better.

Although, like several other new articles, this article takes Top Heavy TO THE EXTREME. Also, GSP needs a lot of cleanup. Is English your first language?

Nah, just third language, native Spanish speaker over here. Add to that that it is over 5.30 AM here, and that my speech patterns in ANY language are weird at best, and yeah, it has some explanations.