We’re going way back for this week’s Interesting Specimen post, all the way back to the prehistoric era. Presenting two of my favorite Fossil Pokemon, Kabuto, and its evolved form, Kabutops.
Fossil Pokemon in general are pretty interesting when you think about it. I mean here we have prehistoric creatures resurrected from fossilized remains. And when you think about it, the Old Amber that encases Aerodactyl’s DNA is an ode to Jurassic Park. But Kabuto and Kabutops are by far my favorites. The main reason is because Kabutops is just so cool looking. It’s no surprise that the Pewter City Museum has a Kabutops skeleton on display.
Kabuto are pretty amazing creatures as well. In the anime it was shown that the body of a Kabuto contains a sort of oil that can revive it from a fossil under the light of a red moon. The episode I speak of took place during the Orange Island arc, and in that episode Ash and the gang explored an island that was made completely out of fossilized Kabuto stacked on top of each other. So when the red moon came, all the Kabuto came back to life and the island broke apart. If that doesn’t make these Pokemon Interesting Specimens, I don’t know what does.
In the Games: In the Generation One games and their remakes, the only way to get a Kabuto was to first obtain the Dome Fossil on the way out of Mt. Moon. I confess that it was actually quite some time before I figured out what the fossils were for. I always just took the Helix Fossil just because it was the one directly in my path out of the mountain. But later on I learned the purpose of the fossils and started a new game to get the right fossil (and because I ran away from Zapdos and lost my chance to catch it). Anyway, with the Dome Fossil in hand the player then has to go to the lab on Cinnabar Island to revive it into a Kabuto. It always ticked me off a little that the only place to revive the fossils is towards the end of the game.
In Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, the Dome Fossil could only be found by mining in the Sinnoh Underground, and the only way to revive it is to take it to the Oreburgh Museum. In SoulSilver, the only way to gain the Dome Fossil is to use Rock Smash in the Ruins of Alph, which technically makes Kabuto a version exclusive. However, in Generation Four, the Fossils were no longer considered Key Items and could be held by a Pokemon and traded. Anyway, in HeartGold and SoulSilver the only place to revive the Dome Fossil is the Pewter City Museum, as a volcano destroyed the Cinnabar Island Lab, along with much of the island itself. In Generation Five, a man at Twist Mountain will give out a Fossil from Kanto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh each day, and this of course includes the Dome Fossil. The Fossils need to be taken to the Nacrene City Museum to be revived.
Evolution: At level forty, Kabuto finally evolves into Kabutops. The fact that it takes so long for Kabuto to evolve makes it a bit of a challenge to raise one. The in the Gen. One games, and I assume their remakes, Kabuto is received at level thirty, so it only takes ten levels to get it to evolve. Anyway, upon evolution, Kabuto go through a drastic change. Not only do they become larger, but they also gain the ability to walk on two legs and grow arms with long sickles on the end, allowing them to use powerful cutting attacks. Kabutops also become amphibious, allowing them to hunt on land.
Happy Accident: I’d like to end this post by relating an amusing anecdote about a Kaboto/Kabutops I once raised in Gold. It began one day when I was visiting of friend of mine. I had borrowed his Gameboy to trade the Kabuto I had gotten on my Yellow version onto my Gold version. But when I got it on there I wasn’t overly thrilled. For one thing there was its move set, which was kinda pitiful. But then move sets from Generation One in general weren’t that great compared to later generations. The other minor problem I had though was that it was female, and I wanted to raise a male.
So I decided to use that Kabuto to breed a new one and start from scratch, then trade the original back onto Yellow at a later date. Since the Kabuto was female I didn’t need to bother using a Ditto, so I looked through one of my strategy guides really quick to find a compatible male I could use. One of the compatible Pokemon for the job was Shellder, and I had already captured a fairly high-level male earlier in the game. So I left the Kabuto and Shellder at the Daycare to “get it on” so they could produce an egg, and since that Kabuto was from a trade it didn’t take long. You know, it never fails to amuse me that the old couple running the Daycare can never figure out how those eggs got there.
Anyway, it didn’t take long for that egg to hatch, and when it did I had gotten a male that would learn a far better set of moves than it could have in Generation One. I then went to that route between Pallet Town and Viridian City to train the little guy. The first wild Pokemon to appear was a Pidgy, if memory serves me. And when the battle began I was greatly surprised to learn that my Kabuto hatchling knew Aurora Beam. It didn’t take me long to figure out that my hatchling had inherited the move from its father, Shellder. If that battle had taken place in the anime, I imagine it going like this.
“Kabuto, attack that Pidgy with…” I begin to command, but before I can finish Kabuto sits up and fires a powerful multi-colored beam of light at the Pidgy, knocking it out of the sky. I stand there for a moment looking very surprised. “Uh, yeah… good boy.”
That wraps it up for this week I think. I’m not sure which Pokemon I’ll cover for next week’s post, but I do have a few ideas. So until then stay tuned. And remember, when you’re attempting to breed Pokemon, be sure to check and see what moves it could potentially inherit.
