So as a field biologist it so entertaining when Pokémon cross over into my real-life work. Today I saw this article about a plant fossil that puzzled folks. During investigations they discovered the plant material were shells from baby turtles. Scientist then nicknamed the species “Turtwig” after Pokémon’s very own! I may soon start a new species collection! Here is the full article if anyone is interested.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/08/world/turtwig-baby-turtle-fossil-scn
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Soon enough academic papers will be filled with Pokemon references.
"In the Pokémon universe, you encounter the concept of combining two or more elements, such as animals, machines, plants, etc.,” said lead author Héctor Palma-Castro, a graduate student of paleobotany at the National University of Colombia, in a statement.
“So, when you have a fossil initially classified as a plant that turns out to be a baby turtle, a few Pokémon immediately come to mind. In this case, Turtwig, a baby turtle with a leaf attached to its head.”
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Reminds me of this
Pikachurin is an extracellular matrix-like retinal protein first discovered in 2008 in Japan by Shigeru Sato et al.[6] and named after Pikachu, a species of the Pokémon franchise.[9] The name of this protein was inspired by Pikachu’s “lightning-fast moves”.[9]
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It’s kind of a big deal too 
The gene has been linked to a condition known as holoprosencephaly, which can result in severe brain, skull and facial defects, causing a few clinicians and scientists to criticize the name on the grounds that it sounds too frivolous. It has been noted that mention of a mutation in a sonic hedgehog gene might not be well received in a discussion of a serious disorder with a patient or their family.
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Sleeping on the “landscape and/or civilization on top of a turtle” trope is whack. One day everyone will know. One day… 
Avatar the last air bender type beat
This is awesome. Fossil discoveries don’t get old, they just get better and better as time goes on.
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Pokémon threatened to sue Memorial Sloan Kettering when they tried to name an oncogene “pokemon”. They didn’t want the franchise associated with cancer.