Mew Part 2: Posterchild for Lamarckian Evolution

So now that we were confident in the Mew Ancestor Theory, let’s talk about how the various Mew populations evolved into the numerous Pokémon breeds out there.  As for Mew's personal species history, one can see from its Pokedex entries (and by the fact that you can't normally find it in the game) that Mew are an extremely rare species in contemporary times, so rare in fact that many researchers don't even believe it exists (good to see that many old scientists are doddering pessimists who are hesitant to believe anything in the Pokemon world too!).  According to some old legends in Gen 4, however, Mew may have one time been plentiful.  This was before recorded human history, before the prehistoric Pokemon were even around (for Pokemon fans, it was around the time Kyogre and Groundon made the seas and land).  Mew diminished over time however, and the answer why is obvious.  Using its unique ability to change into any shape and use any kind of elemental power, various pockets of Mew population settled down in a physical location and transformed into something better suited for their environment, filling all the available niches.  They then passed on these new traits to their children, and after several generations the individual subspecies of Pokemon started to form.  If you're familiar at all with evolutionary biology, you know what this means.  Evolution in the Pokemon world runs on the mechanics of Lamarckian evolution!  Say whaaaaatt???

If you’ve taken 6^th science class, then you know what Lamarckian evolution is.  Let me refresh your memory:

This is one evolutionary idea that was thought up of before Charles Darwin presented natural selection in Origin of the Species.  Evolution was not an idea that Charles Darwin pulled out of thin air in 1859, on the contrary Enlightenment era biologists were noticing for a while that species obviously change.  There just wasn’t a good mechanic for it proposed yet (plus there was that whole religion thing making people hesitant to speak too boldly about it).  Probably the most favored mechanic pre-Darwin was proposed by French Biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck a couple of times between 1794 and 1809.  You can see the mechanic in the above picture.  The giraffe, after a lifetime of stretching its neck to reach the leaves in tall trees, will then pass down its new long neck to its children.  This idea is summed up in two points: 1) evolution-by-necessity-when a feature is needed, it will appear; 2)use-it-or-lose-it- when a feature is not needed, it will disappear.  We now know this is a fallacy.  Traits are passed on through genetic information (genotypes), not physical traits (phenotypes).  Nothing can will their body to change their genes, and if a bodybuilder has kids they won’t automatically be born ripped.  Therefore we know Lamarckian evolution doesn’t happen because 1)living individuals have no capacity to ‘evolve’ and they have no capacity to change their personal genetic codes; and 2)biological evolution is not a response to the environment, but a consequence of the environment.

However, in the Pokémon Universe Lamarckian theory seems like the most obvious mechanic for evolution.  How could this be possible if it’s been proven wrong in the real world?  Because this is a fictional world with different rules!  Unlike a real animal, Mew DOES have the ability to will its body to transform into whatever it wants.  Mew’s DNA is a wild and complex group of molecules that not only allow its phenotype to change crazily, but to speciate into the other Pokémon without losing its ability to interbreed within the total population.  Each subspecies of Pokémon keeps that intensely varied genetic code too as evidenced by Pikachu (an electric type) using Iron Tail (a steel type move).  And when I get into the mechanics of what Pokémon calls “evolution” (Bulbasaur evolving into Ivysaur, etc), you’ll see just how much Pokémon have a conscious ability to tap into their genotype to radically change their phenotype.  We still run into the problem of ontogeny though (ontogeny is the term for the development of an individual from fertilized egg to its mature form, aka the Pokémon’s journey from sperm and egg to hatched creature).  All Pokémon have almost the same genotype, yet aren’t born as Mew.  I propose two solutions.

Hypothesis 1: Constant use of the same transformed outward form and/or elemental techniques in a population of Mew/Pokémon will permanently mutate the section of genetic code used in ontogeny, resulting in a different phenotype on birth.

Hypothesis 2: An individual is able to permanently mutate the section of genetic code used in ontogeny as a conscious effort.

Before you scoff at the second hypothesis, consider this: Since physical transformation and use of varied elemental powers is a conscious effort of an individual to manipulate sections of its genetic code in the first place, it’s not outrageous to think they the same individual can consciously manipulate the way its children develop.  Regardless, either of these hypothesis could be the answer to the problem of Pokémon’s soft inheritance.

Completely incorrect, and now used as a strawman by creationists.

I should note that there is another evolutionary idea now proven false that is related to ontogeny and Mew itself.  It is the recapitulation theory, which is unsurprisingly inspired largely from Lamarckian evolution.  It infamously states that “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”, which in laymen’s terms basically means that in an individual animal the development process from embryo to adult goes through stages that look like the previous stages of their species’ evolution.  This concept was proposed by German zoologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866, and is discredited today namely because… it doesn’t happen.  At no stage of development does a chicken or human fetus grow functional fish gills.  The infamous illustration at the right was exaggerated by the illustrator to try and prove the hypothesis as true, and the initial idea came from overactive imagination when observing fetal stages (humans naturally look for patterns even when none are there).  However the idea isn’t completely bogus.  In development the more ancient of traits often develop first, like the backbone in vertebrate embryos.  So how does this idea relate to Mew?

Mew itself looks like a fetus.  It’s pink, has a big head with a little body, and hair so fine that you need a microscope to see it.  It even forms a protective psychic bubble around it sometimes (like in Pokémon Snap) that resembles an amniotic sac.  Just compare for yourself:

So while recapitulation theory says that our fetuses look like our ancestors, in Pokémon their ancestor looks like a fetus.  Weird.

There’s one last problem with Mew being the Pokémon ancestor.  Why would it, as its Pokedex entry states, “contain the genetic codes of all Pokémon”?  Evolution does work that way.  Our ancestor didn’t have the genetic codes of all the current organisms, bits of genetic code got added, changed, and deleted to it over time and many, many mutations.  To suggest that the original ancestor would have all the different species it would evolve to mapped out in its DNA ahead of time is reminiscent of …. shudder… intelligent design.  I have two answers to this.  First, unlike in the real world intelligent design is an actual possibility in the Pokémon universe.  The Pokémon universe has a creator god called Arceus, and whether it acts as some kind of interfering deity or as a more deistic divine watchmaker is yet to be determined.  However, that possibility of ID is there.  More likely than not however, I feel like the phrase “contain the genetic codes of all Pokémon” is actually a misnomer.  It should read as “contains the same genetic material that all Pokémon have”.  The genotype of all Pokémon is practically the same as Mew’s with only a few genetically minor (while phenotypically major) changes.  Besides, just like dogs one could argue that Mew’s vast variety of breeds and subspecies got that way through artificial selection, only instead of a dog breeder, the one doing the artificial selection is the Pokémon itself.  Mew’s smart enough to do so anyway.

So here’s to Mew, the super rare fetus ancestor Pokémon!  May you grace the Pokedexes of lucky trainers everywhere.

Next time: I'll begin my quest to map out the phylogenetic tree of all Pokemon.  It's not going well so far...

PS: Some of the ideas posited by Lamarck's theories are now actually be reconsidered today, particularly when it comes to evolutionary developmental biology (or Evo-Devo).  But that's current, brand new research that shouldn't be talked about in a mostly pedestrian setting like this yet.