Pokemon Gets a Fossil Exhibit in Japan

A touring exhibit that uses Pokemon to teach children about fossils and dinosaurs will open in Japan this summer. A touring exhibition called "Pokemon Kaseki Hakubutsukan" (translated to Pokemon Fossil Museum) will launch this summer and will travel across Japan over the next year. The exhibition's goal is to connect the world of Pokemon to the real world and teach children about dinosaurs and the paleontology field. Pokemon fans will get to meet the real world equivalents of Pokemon like Shieldon, Omanyte and Aerodactyl and take a look at full-scale skeletons of Pokemon as well as dinosaurs. One feature will be a full-scale model of a Tyrantum skeleton, which will be about 8 feet high. The exhibit will launch on July 4th at the Mikasa City Museum in Hokkaido. The exhibition will also travel to Shimane, Tokyo, and Aichi until wrapping up sometime in the summer in 2022.

Using Pokemon to teach kids about paleontology is a natural fit. Fossil Pokemon have been a part of the Pokemon world since the original Pokemon games, with multiple games featuring some ancient Pokemon restored to life using fossils and the advanced technology of the Pokemon world. Not only do players collect these fossils from mines and dig sites, they also learn a little bit about the ancient Pokemon world in the process. The most recent games, Pokemon Sword and Shield, featured a rather unique twist on the fossil Pokemon twist. The game featured four Fossil Pokemon that were amalgams created by mixing and matching fossil parts - all of whom had some sort of fatal anatomical flaw. These abominations were nods to the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, famed model dinosaurs found in London's Crystal Palace that featured hilarious anatomical inaccuracies, such as a thumb bone mistakenly used as a horn.

The full schedule for the Pokemon Fossil Museum is as follows:

• Hokkaido - Mikasa City Museum: July 4th - September 20th
• Shimane Prefecture - Shimane Prefectural Sampei Nature Museum: Scheduled for Fall 2021
• Tokyo - National Science Museum: Scheduled for Spring 2022
• Aichi - Toyohashi Museum of Natural History: Scheduled for Summer 2022.

Additional locations and dates could also be added.