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A weekly Pokédex Podcast from Bald Man in Japan Luke Summerhayes. A different Pokémon family every week.
I’m Luke Summerhayes and I love Tirtouga.
In the early days of paleontology, when fossilized bones similar to those of modern animals but far too large were beginning to be discovered, it was speculated that the Earth was once the home of giants. People imagined that just as enormous lizards and serpents were being unearthed, soon gigantic equivalents of all modern animals would be discovered.
Of course, the history of life on Earth is more complicated than that. Differing oxygen levels and temperatures can lead to life overall growing larger, but the long evolutionary history of life on Earth takes on many different shapes and sizes, far from one set of animals that started large and are getting smaller. That all being said, every now and then that hypothesis is right. Many prehistoric insects resembled giant versions of modern counterparts, and the oceans of the age of dinosaurs were literally full of titanic turtles.
Tirtouga is a turtle Pokémon with the blue and black color of a sea turtle and the shape of a soft-shelled turtle. Intriguingly, it looks very similar to a monster drawn by Ken Sugimori, longtime lead artist of Pokémon, for a magazine cover around the time of Generation 2. These designs were never official Pokémon, only meant to evoke the style, but as well as this one another of the creatures was very similar to Tyranitar. Tirtouga is only obtainable by reviving the Cover fossil, hence it has a water and rock typing.
Black
Restored from a fossil, this Pokémon can dive to depths beyond half a mile.
White
About 100 million years ago, these Pokémon swam in oceans. It is thought they also went on land to attack prey.
Both the fossil Pokémon available in the fifth generation seem to represent evolutionary missing links. In this case, Tirtouga’s softer shell with seeming sunkern portions may represent an earlier step in the evolution of the turtle shell – though it could just as easily represent the necessarily lighter shell of a large sized prehistoric turtle.
Sun
Based on studies of its skeletal structure, it can apparently dive to ocean depths of over half a mile.
Moon
Reputed to be the ancestor of most turtle Pokémon, it lived in warm seas approximately a hundred million years ago.
The name Tirtouga combines the English turtle with the Spanish Tortuga, which just means Turtle. The Japanese name is Protoga, a reference to the Protostega, a prehistoric turtle ancestor.
At level 37, this proto-turtle can move a little further along, evolving into Carracosta.
Carracosta is a bigger, bulkier turtle, perhaps alluding to the largest prehistoric ancestor, the Archelon. It stands up on its hind legs, and rather than Tirtouga’s soft shell, it has hard armour which also comes around to the front in what resembles a bulletproof vest. Along with the blue and black coloration, it does somewhat resemble a police officer in the Special Weapons and tactics, or SWAT, department.
Black
They can live both in the ocean and on land. A slap from one of them is enough to open a hole in the bottom of a tanker.
White
Incredible jaw strength enables them to chew up steel beams and rocks along with their prey.
Black 2
It could knock out a foe with a slap from one of its developed front appendages and chew it up, shell or bones and all.
Real sea turtles do have incredible bite strength, capable of bending metal beams even if they can’t quite sink ships all by themselves. Carracosta at least does live up to these descriptions. As one may be able to guess from looking at it, it’s a Pokémon that can make short work of enemies after using the move Shell Smash to swap defense for speed – ironic for a Pokémon which seemingly represents the moment turtles evolved their hard shells.
The name Carracosta combines carapace, for its shell, with costa, the Spanish for coast, perhaps in reference to this monster coming on land more than its sea-turtle predecessor. The Japanese name, Abagora, combines Japanese words for thrashing violence, the rib cage and the shell – turtle shells actually being an extension of the rib cage they share with other vertebrates like us.
I’ve always been fond of turtles, perhaps stemming from choosing Squirtle as my starter back in Pokémon Blue. While they can’t quite compete with dinosaurs, mammoths and megalodons, seeing a giant turtle fossil at a museum is always a treat.
Music for Luke Loves Pokémon is composed by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork for the show is by Katie Groves. Writing, Producing and Editing is by me, Luke Summerhayes. Funding is provided by my lovely listeners. If you’d like to join them, to help keep the show online and find other podcasts by me and my pals, head over to Patreon.com/PodcastioPodcastius.
Coming up are Archen and Trubbish, so if you have thoughts about those or any other monsters, hit me up with a DM @LukeLovesPKMN or an email to LukeLovesPKMN@Gmail.com. And of course, I’d love if you could leave a 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Even if you don’t feel like doing any of that, thank you so much just for listening.
I love Tirtouga. And remember. I love you too.