Pokemon and Taxonomy: How Pokémon Inspired Scientists

In this episode, scientists Arjun Mann and Spencer Mockden reflect on how growing up with Pokemon shaped their fascination with classification, fossils, and insects, and how this pop culture phenomenon continues to inform scientific thinking and museum exhibitions.

• Pokemon as a gateway to taxonomy: practical parallels between Pokemon classification and Linnaean taxonomy.
• Real-life biology inspiring fictional creatures and vice versa, including names of fossils and insects after Pokemon characters.
• A Field Museum exhibition linking Pokemon fossils to their real-world inspirations, adapting content for North American audiences.
• Personal journeys in science: impostor syndrome, naming new species after Pokemon characters, and the broader impact on science careers.

Overview: Pokemon as a Gateway to Biological Thinking

The podcast features two scientists who were Pokemon fans as children—Arjun Mann, a fossil fishes curator at the Field Museum, and Spencer Mockden, an entomologist at the University of Guelph—discussing how their early fascination with Pokemon helped shape their scientific paths. They describe how the Pokemon world mirrors a system of classification, with types and evolutions offering a simplified model of taxonomy and evolution that can spark curiosity about the natural world. A running theme is the bidirectional relationship between science and Pokemon: Pokemon inspires scientific thinking and real-world science informs how Pokemon is imagined and presented.

In their conversation, they highlight the way Pokemon introduces nested categories and “types” that parallel biological classifications. This section also touches on how many Pokemon are named after real animals, and how some real species have been named after Pokemon characters. The pair describe the broader cultural impact of this crossover, noting that the creator Satoshi Tajiri drew inspiration from his childhood hobbyist pursuits, which seeded a public-facing gateway into taxonomy and natural history.

Taxonomy as a Framework: Parallel Structures Between Pokemon and Real Biology

The discussion moves into the conceptual parallels between Pokemon’s classification system and Linnaean taxonomy. The guests note that the indexing, collecting, and categorization aspects of Pokemon mirror how natural history collections function in paleontology and entomology. Mann emphasizes that many young people learn to classify creatures through Pokemon before encountering the real world, underscoring how pop culture can act as a primer for scientific thinking. Mockden expands on how classifications in the game—types, multiple types, evolutions—echo real-world groupings, even if biology objects to some of the meta-ideas (such as metamorphosis) being simplified for a game audience. The takeaway is that Pokemon can seed a systematic way of looking at biodiversity, even if the biological mechanisms differ from fictional rules.

They also discuss the cross-pollination between real animals and Pokemon—names of fossils and insects named after Pokemon characters, and vice versa. An illustrative example is the Field Museum’s recent collaboration naming a fossil after a Pokemon, Turtwig, and an insect named Calicula Charizard. The exchange demonstrates how taxonomy, paleontology, and entomology can engage with the public by leveraging Pokemon as an engaging narrative hook. This theme culminates in the Field Museum’s Pokemon fossil exhibition, which opens in May and runs through the following year, highlighting fossil influences and North American fossils to make the science locally relevant.

Exhibition as a Bridge: Pokemon and Fossils in a Museum Setting

The Field Museum’s Pokemon-themed fossil exhibition is born from a Japanese paleontologist, Daisuke Aiba, who studied ammonites and other invertebrates. He proposed a comparative approach: showing fossil Pokemon alongside their real-world fossil inspirations to demonstrate how natural history and science inform pop culture and vice versa. The exhibit is adapted for a North American audience, featuring local fossils to increase relevance. This segment illustrates how science communication can be enhanced by cross-media storytelling, engaging broader audiences in museum spaces while teaching core concepts in taxonomy and fossil study. As Mann notes, the exhibit demonstrates a two-way street: science informs Pokemon-inspired design and Pokemon-inspired storytelling can broaden public interest in natural history.

Personal narratives thread through the conversation: Mockden discusses his imposter syndrome during grad school and how Pokemon provided a framework for naming a species after a Pokemon character, Charizard, a gesture that legitimizes his scientific identity and aligns his fieldwork with his lifelong fascination. The conversation also touches on the emotional and cognitive dimensions of studying nature, including how Pokemon-style naming processes can integrate with serious taxonomy and contribute to a scientist’s sense of belonging within their discipline.

Personal Journeys: Imposter Syndrome, Naming, and Inspiration

Mockden explains that naming Calicula Charizard—a bee that nests in plant stems in Chile—was a meaningful moment connected to his own growth as a biologist. He frames this as an honest expression of the inspiration Pokemon provided, showing that pop culture can support professional development and resilience. The hosts and guests reflect on how the natural world remains the ultimate source of inspiration, even for people immersed in science communication and biomimicry in film and literature. In closing, the discussion broadens to broader messages about funding natural history and recognizing the two-way influence between pop culture and science.

Overall, the podcast argues for a continued investment in natural history and for public-facing science communication that acknowledges the symbiotic relationship between cultural products like Pokemon and scientific understanding. The two guests celebrate the way Pokemon can spark curiosity and fuel a lifelong engagement with biology, and they offer a blueprint for how exhibits and education programs can leverage pop culture to illuminate real-world science and taxonomy.

Conclusion: A Two-Way Street Between Nature and Pop Culture

The podcast ends with a reflection on the broader relationship between nature, science, and popular culture, suggesting that the natural world continues to inspire fiction, film, and design in meaningful, scientifically informative ways. The guests emphasize funding natural history and cultivating a shared curiosity that bridges science and everyday life, with Pokemon serving as a delightful, educational conduit to learning about taxonomy, biodiversity, and evolution.