Actually, it is implied that all Pokemon are the same species
Barring Oddish, well, you could, through breeding and leaving out ditto, connect all gendered, non legendaries to each other. So Mew containing the DNA of all accessable Pokemon (Arceus is not accessable) isn't that Farfetch'd (pardon the pun). With ditto in the mix, all Pokemon other than legendaries are connected, and legendaries may merely require specific breeding conditions. So all Pokemon being subspecies of the... Let's say Pokemon Pokemon Species because I'm lazy may not be that out there --Shadowater 05:05, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
- Was it implied somewhere that humans and pokemon are related? I seem to recall that it was. PLA 08:25, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
- Legendaries are a more complicated idea. Arceus, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina almost definitely came before Mew. It would seem Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza also pre-dated Mew. The possible reasoning behind (most) legendaries inability to breed might be because they were never meant to. Arceus created them during the formation of the Pokémon world to be solitary assistants in creating it or protecting it once it was finished. Perhaps the Pokédex is wrong and Mew is the origin of a majority of Pokémon, linking all that can breed with Ditto, but this is all speculation of course.-N-Pie 09:34, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
- By the real-world definition of the term "species" - Animals are considered to be different species when they aren't genetically compatible with each other - you could indeed class most Pokemon as members of a single, super-diverse species. The closest thing we have in reality to this is dogs: They can be very different, and yet they can all breed with each other.
- However, when referring to Pokemon, we mostly use the word "species" to mean individual Pokemon. Even though the actual in-game definition of "species" is even more spurious (it refers to those useless classifications, like "Mouse Pokemon"). George Hutcheon 17:08, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
Evolution in the Pokémon world might be predetermined in Mew's DNA
Evolution in Pokémon would seem to work differently than in reality. Pokémon evolution is more like metamorphosis and you can be predict exactly what a one Pokémon, for example Pikachu, will evolve into, in this case a Raichu. The predetermined nature of evolution in Pokémon would perhaps be explained by Mew containing the DNA of all the Pokémon, rather than that setting off your nerd-senses about evolutionary misconception. Remember, the Pokémon world is a strange place. Real world science doesn't necessarily hold true there.-N-Pie 09:43, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
- Talk of evolution within the series is complicated by the fact that there are actually two kinds of evolution at work here: the one that's a mechanic in the games (essentially metamorphosis) and something more akin to actual evolution, which must have occurred if Mew is the ancestor of other Pokemon. I would consider these processes to be entirely separate, but it's hard to discuss them because they both have the same name. George Hutcheon 17:08, 5 October 2010 (UTC)