PFM
Image: Pokémon Company

Hold on to your butts, because palaeontology is about to get wacky. The Pokémon Company just announced a tour around Japan showing off the skeletons of real Pokémon, and how they compare to prehistoric animals, like dinosaurs, sea creatures, and weird lil reptiles.

PFM
The fact that Pikachu is dressed like Dr Alan Grant is not lost on us — Image: Pokémon Company

Starting in July, the Museum tour will travel to Hokkaido, Shimane, Tokyo, and the Aichi Prefecture, with more destinations to be revealed in time. Presumably it's Japan-only for the time being because most dinosaur skeletons cannot swim, and are not allowed on planes unless they have passports.

Dino skellies
Ok now do the skeleton of Vanillite — Image: Pokémon Company

All of the Pokémon featured in the Pokémon Fossil Museum are the Fossil Pokémon (say that three times fast) which all took their design inspiration from real-life creatures, hence why they're being shown off. It's all very scientific, you know — and it's all in pursuit of helping kids know more about things, which is always nice.

More dino skellies
We have no proof that real dinosaurs weren't this cute — Image: Pokémon Company

The travelling exhibition will take place from July 2021 all the way through to at least 2022, with potential extensions. You can check out the locations and times on the website.

[source kahaku.go.jp]