Furcatoceratops: Beast of the Week

 This week we'll be checking out a newly described ceratopsian, Furcatoceratops elucidans!

Furcatoceratops was a ceratopsian dinosaur that lived in what is now Montana, USA, during the late Cretaceous period, between 76 and 75 million years ago.  From beak to tail it measured about thirteen feet (4 meters) long.  The genus name translates to "Forked-horned Face" and the species name, elucidans, means "enlightening".  Like all known ceratopsians, Furcatoceratops likely ate plants when it was alive.

Watercolor life reconstruction of Furcatoceratops by Christopher DiPiazza.  The crossed horns is speculation based on the fact that there would have been keratin growing over the fossilized horn cores (which are very close together) in life.  

Amazingly, Furcatoceratops is known from an almost complete skeleton, which is rare for dinosaur fossils.  As is the case with most ceratopsians, its most notable feature is its horns.  Furcatoceratops had two horns growing from above its eyes that are quite close together, basically parallel to each other. This is unusual compared to the brow horns of other ceratopsian dinosaurs, which tend to grow angled away from each other.  Furcatoceratops also had a series of small, triangular horns growing from the perimeter of its frill.  Many ceratopsians also have a horn on the snout over the nostrils but since that portion of Furcatoceratops' skull was one of the few parts not found, it is unclear if it also had a horn there in life.  

As which all ceratopsians, the exact evolutionary purpose of Furcatoceratops' horns is unknown, but display within its species or defense against potential predators are possibilities.  Lower on the skull, Furcatoceratops had a sharp beak backed up by many small teeth that would work together like shears for processing mouthfulls of plants when alive. 

Furcatoceratops skeleton on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tsukuba, Japan. (photo credit: "eight heads serpent")

Within the ceratopsian group (dinosaurs known for their horns and bony frills) Furcatoceratops is part of the centrosaurine branch of the family tree.  Centrosaurines are known for having robust, tall snouts, and proportionally shorter frills.  Within this group, Furcatoceratops appears to be particularly closely related to Nasutoceratops, which was alive during almost the same time as Furcatoceratops in what is now Utah, USA.  

That is all for this week!  As always feel free to comment below!

References

Ishikawa, H.; Tsuihiji, T.; Manabe, M. (2023). "Furcatoceratops elucidans, a new centrosaurine (Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae) from the upper Campanian Judith River Formation, Montana, USA". Cretaceous Research. 105660.

Visiting the Pokemon Fossil Museum

 I was fortunate enough to take a trip to Japan this past summer with friends and family. We are all big Pokemon fans, my wife and I having played the games since the late 90s, and my daughter enjoying the anime, so we naturally had a lot of fun visiting several of the official Pokemon centers and other attractions throughout the country during our three weeks in the country.  One of the must-sees was to visit the Pokemon Fossil Museum, a traveling exhibit that showcases fabricated skeletons and models of prehistoric Pokemon alongside casts of the real dinosaur and other prehistoric animal fossils they're based on.  

Model of what the skeleton of the Pokemon, Tyrantrum, might look like on display in the main hall of the museum, before entering the exhibit. My daughter and I for scale.

Upon entering the exhibit visitors are greeted by a model of the pterosaur Pokemon, Aerodactyl, being ridden by a Pikachu (because of course there's Pikachu) dressed like a paleontologist. Pikachu was never one of my favorite Pokemon but I must admit this version of the electric mouse was very cute.  "Paleontologist Pikachu" would be portrayed several more times throughout the exhibit acting as a sort of guide, and was shown interacting with various prehistoric Pokemon.  Regarding Aerodactyl, despite being one of the original fossil Pokemon from the first generation of the franchise, there is no actual skeleton of it in the exhibit.  It is mentioned and depicted again alongside a cast of a Pteranodon, Dimorphodon, and Pterodactylus, demonstrating pterosaur anatomy, however. 

Aerodactyl and Paleontologist Pikachu are the first pokemon models you meet upon entering.  Sadly there was no Aerodactyl skeleton on display anywhere. 

Casts of the skeletons of Pteranodon and Dimorphodon hanging from the ceiling.

Two more of my favorite Pokemon, Cranidos and Rampardos, based on pachycephalosaurs, were also not featured as models or skeletons, but they are mentioned alongside casts of two different Pachycephalosaurus skulls.  

Pachycephalosaur section of the exhibit.  It was cool to see two different Pachycehpalosaurus specimens on display next to each other.  Sadly there were not models or skeletons of Cranidos or Rampardos on display anywhere.

The exhibit showcases quite a few ceratopsian pieces, including a (real?) Protoceratops skull and a baby Triceratops skull cast that appears to have been filled in quite a bit.  It doesn't match the other baby Triceratops skulls I've seen in photos of and in person at other museums.  They also have a model of what I'm pretty sure is the Triceratops prorsus skull, from the Yale Peabody Museum.  These pieces are showcased alongside a full skeleton model of the ceratopsian Pokemon, Bastiodon.

Protoceratops and baby Triceratops skull cast.  You can tell what parts of the Triceratops are reconstructed by the smooth texture.

The ceratopsian part of the exhibit, flanked by skeleton of the pokemon, Bastion in the background, and model of Triceratops prorsus skull in the foreground.

The main hall of the exhibit showcases full skeletal mounts of the sauropod Pokemon, Aurorus, and the real dinosaur it's based on, Amargasaurus, opposite each other where visitors can compare them side by side.  Amargasaurus is known for the long, bony extensions growing from the top of its neck vertebrae, which may have formed a sail or hump in life. Aurorus design took this feature and turned it into an aurora borealis-like structure that ripples like a flag.  The signage explicitly mentions that the structure on the Pokemon has no bones supporting it, but the skeletal model has pieces for it.  I'm assuming to keep the skeleton recognizable especially to younger visitors.  Makes me think of how some skeletal mounts of real dinosaurs include physical outlines of soft parts, like wings or even attach real arm feathers to the bones to showcase structures that would have been present in life. 

The Pokemon, Aurorus, and dinosaur, Amargasaurus were the two largest pieces in the exhibit.

Beautiful Amargasaurus.  This was my first time seeing a skeletal mount of this dinosaur in person.

Aurorus is one of my all time favorite Pokemon so it was a delight to see this model skeleton.

There was of course a theropod section, with a cast of the original Megalosaurus jaw discovered in the 1800s, alongside a cast of what is labelled as a baby Tyrannosaurus skull.  I was unfamiliar with this specimen so I reached out to paleontologist and tyrannosaur expert, Dr. Thomas Holtz, who was kind enough to share that it appears to be of a two-year old Tyrannosaurus specimen housed in Los Angeles.  The actual specimen is only known from the very front of the snout and lower jaw, and a part of the top of the cranium, so most of the skull on display here is reconstructed.  These are showcased alongside a model skeleton of the tyrannosaur Pokemon, Tyrunt.  I appreciate how the design of the Pokemon shows the teeth as part of the actual jaw, instead of in sockets, like the Pokemon's design suggests. 

Megalosaurus jaw cast and the mostly reconstructed baby Tyrannosaurus skull cast.

Skeleton model of the tyrannosaur pokemon, Tyrunt.

The link between theropod dinosaurs and modern birds is also addressed with a skeleton model of the feathered dinosaur Pokemon, Archen, alongside a standing skeletal mount and cast of the famous Archaeopteryx specimen, housed in Berlin.

Check out that beautiful Archaeopteryx art by Hitoshi Ariga.

Archen, which is mostly based on Archaeopteryx, skeleton on display.

I was impressed by how much attention was given invertebrate fossils in this exhibit, particularly ammonites.  In fact, the most extensive collection on display in the exhibit was of ammonites, which were of course shown alongside their Pokemon counterparts, Ammonite and Omastar.  

This exhibit showcased an extensive collection of real ammonite fossils packed with information.

Other invertebrate Pokemon were represented, including the flying bug-type Pokemon, Yanmega, alongside casts of the real prehistoric flying insect, Meganeura.  Fossils of crinoids alongside models of the Pokemon Lileep were present, and of course horseshoe crabs alongside the Pokemon, Kabuto and a skeleton of its evolved form, Kabutops.  

Comparing the Pokemon, Kabuto, to horsehoe crabs.  I love how the eyes on the model appeared to be glowing.

Kabutops skeleton model.  I'm assuming it's meant to represent a fossilized exoskeleton?  I remember seeing a little pixelated image of this in the museum part of the old Pokemon gameboy game.

One very entertaining aspect of this exhibit for Pokemon fans was the models of the fossil items obtained in the video game that can be turned into Pokemon on display.  My favorite example of this is the "old amber" fossil item, used to resurrect Aerodactyl in the game, displayed alongside real pieces of fossil amber.  

"Old Amber" from the Pokemon games alongside some real fossilized amber.

I've seen museum exhibits based on fictional entertainment franchises before, but the first thing that I noticed about the Pokemon exhibit, was how the visitor is immersed between two worlds, the real world, and the fictional Pokemon world.  The signage talks to you from both places, so you can imagine yourself as a real Pokemon trainer in that fictional world part of the time.  The biggest example of this was how the exhibit acknowledges the difference in the meaning of the word "evolution" between the real world and the Pokemon world.  They explain how actual evolution is a process that typically takes many generations or millions of years to observe and how fossils play a part in our understanding of it.  Then they compare to how in pokemon "evolution" is more like metamorphosis, individual animals changing their form drastically at specific points during their life.  Below is a translation from the signage for this section of the exhibit.

"As your Charmander accumulates experience in battles and other tasks, it evolves into a Charmeleon, and eventually into a winged Charizard.  It becomes a different kind of Pokemon with a very different appearance, but as an individual it is still the same you got from Professor Oak.  It may sound a lot like 'growth' in our world, although the change is perhaps more than just growth, and it is seemingly not related to the passage of time.

In our world, 'evolution' doesn't happen to an individual, but occurs as a group, over the course of generations.  For example, we say 'life evolved from fish to amphibians, and eventually began to live on land' to describe an evolutionary course.  But this does not mean that one fish acquired feet instead of fins and began to walk on the ground.  First, amongst fish there were some individuals that had 'slightly harder fins'. These were advantageous for survival in certain circumstances, so later generations had more individuals with those 'slightly harder fins'.  This was repeated over a long enough time to reach individual obtained 'much harder fins' that we would consider a different species."

This was probably my favorite piece of signage in the museum for educational value.  I love how gracefully they explain real evolution compared to how it works in the Pokemon games.

Lastly the gift shop was full of all sorts of exclusive goodies.  This was of course dangerous for my wallet.  The haul you see her was me showing restraint.  I especially love the skeletal art keychains.  

Paleontologist Pikachu plush, skeleton keychains of Aerodactyl and Aurorus, postcards, sticker, and magnet of Hitoshi Ariga's art, and finally a break apart chocolate bar of one of several randomly assorted prehistoric pokemon. (a popular candy in Japan, normally featuring real dinosaurs) This haul was me showing restraint. Still kinda wish I grabbed the Rampardos plush and the fossil Pokemon bandana.

Overall I'm thrilled I finally got to visit this delightful exhibit after only reading about it for years.  It was a once in a lifetime experience that my whole family thoroughly enjoyed.  I especially appreciated how it was not short on real fossil displays or actual science education, despite the Pokemon theme, so even people who aren't fans of the franchise could enjoy it.  I highly recommend visiting for any Pokemon or paleontology fan.  If you want more prehistoric Pokemon content from me or want more info on the various Pokemon mentioned in this post, make sure to check out when I broke down which real animals all the prehistoric Pokemon are based on in three parts 1 through 3.  Here, here, and here.

The walls of the gift shop were covered in skeletals of fossil Pokemon. I love them.