Pokemon #141, Kabutops, Rock/Water type, shellfish pokemon.
Intro: Kabutops is the evolved version of Kabuto, who was resurrected from a fossil using the latest cell-reconstruction and genetic assembly technology.
Kabuto is a bipedal pokemon with a grey torso, brown limbs and head, and grey claws instead of hands. Kabutops’ head is large and flat and consists of three segments, all pointing forward in a streamlined manner. Its eyes are small and triangular. Its torso consists of five segments arranged top-down in a two-two-one configuration. It’s large claws are reminiscent of death scythes. Its brown, segmented legs are constructed like a humanoid’s, but it has two sharp claws instead of toes. It has six sharp protrusions on its back pointing sideways and slightly down. It has a single protrusion coming from the back of its head and one at the end of the spine, similar to a rigid tail.
Habitat: Kabutops used to dwell in the oceans, and was on the verge of evolving to be able to live on land, when it suddenly went extinct. Nowadays, Kabutops can no longer be found in the wild, since the only living specimens are those resurrected from fossils.
Diet: Kabutops is a brutal pokemon that hunts other pokemon for food. It will slash almost any pokemon with flesh on it and drain its fluids for nourishment.
Biology: Kabutops is at the height of oceanic evolution. Its streamlined body is optimized for hydrodynamic movement, and it is able to chase down any prey as long as it’s in the water. It swims by folding in its claws and wiggling the shell to swim, which is remarkably efficient. Kabutops has also evolved the ability to move on two legs, which allows it to move on land. The land-movement is much slower than in the water, though. Kabutops was attempting to move onto land as is evident in changes in gills and legs found in different fossils. It should be noted that Kabutops fossils are much more fragile than Kabuto fossils, and finding an intact one is much harder.
Kabutops’ evolution towards life on land is direct evidence of its incredible tenacity as a hunter. In order to get away from Kabutops, its prey had slowly evolved the ability to live on land. Relentless as it is, Kabutops responded to this evolution by developing the ability to live on land as well. Halfway through fully adapting to life on land, calamity struck and Kabutops somehow became extinct. This likely happened due to a sudden change in climate, which killed off all Kabutops’ prey, leaving them without food.
Though the two do not appear to be directly related, Kabutops shares its pokemon type name with Blastoise. Both are called Shellfish pokemon.
Pokemon League Commission notes:
Class F: Kabutops is naturally declared extinct and can only be obtained by evolving Kabuto, which is in turn resurrected from fossils. Since plenty of fossils appear to be present in the underground tunnels of Sinnoh, no restrictions have been set towards the excavation of said fossils.
