ThePokémon universe encompasses games, anime, movies, and much more. Now it’s even a museum exhibit. The Pokémon Fossil Museum connects Pokémon to real-life animals. It includes fossils of dinosaurs and other extinct critters as well as representations of what Pokémon would look like in the fossil record. You can now take avirtual tour of the exhibit, no traveling or museum entrance fee required. 

The adorable Pikachu takes you through the displays. Excavator Pikachu is dressed a lot like Dr. Alan Grant fromJurassic Park and it’s nothing short of adorable. The exhibit istraveling to museums in Japan. The displays are in Japanese. However, they include enough pictures and obvious comparisons between the real-life animals and Pokémon to make it universally interesting. 

Looking around the museums, it’s striking how many similarities there are between science and Pokémon. The creators clearly studied names and adaptations from Earth when developing new characters. On the list of extinct critters, there’s the ammonite-like Omanyte and Tyrannosaurus-like Tyrantrum. There’s even some that are found as fossils but are also still alive today, like horseshoe crabs (Kabuto) and coelacanths (Relicanth).

We learned about the Pokémon Fossil Museum fromIGN. There’s no shortage of other great ways to learn real-life science using the Pokémon catalog. There’s the Pokénatomy books that show anatomy, theScientific Pokédex explaining their powers, andcharacter evolution artwork based on adaptations here on Earth.

There are also plenty of un-scientific ways to include more Pokémon in your life. Like themedengagement rings andweddings. Ordrone shows andplaygrounds. And don’t forget about the two new games coming up soon:Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hostsStar Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her onTwitter @melissatruth. 

More byMelissa T. Miller