Cranidos and Rampardos

Cranidos and Rampardos are one of the two fossil lines introduced in Gen IV, alongside Sheildon and Bastiodon. Unlike previous generations, the Fossil Mon you’d get in Gen IV was determined by which version of the game you had. The Skull Fossil was first only available in Diamond version.

In terms of appearance, both Cranidos and Rampardos resemble Pachycephalosaurs. Cranidos is a smaller, “baby” version, with lighter greys, while Rampardos is the “adult”, with darker greys and bigger body. Both of them have domed heads and are often depicted head-butting things—in fact, both of their official titles are “the Head Butt Pokemon.”

Both Gen IV Fossil Mons represent an interesting milestone—they’re both Pokemon’s first actual dinosaur Fossil Mons. Even more interesting is using both a Pachycephalosaur and a Ceratopsian together, as the two are actually closely related on the dinosaur family tree.

Pokemon Design

Cranidos and Rampardos are probably exactly what you’d get if you asked anyone to design a Pachycephalosaur Pokemon. They aren’t too outside the box, even compared to their counterparts, but there’s really something about this line that I adore. I think it’s Rampardos’s colours for me—the stark blue with the red eyes always stands out. Gen IV plays a lot with reds, blues and yellows (not unlike this site!), and Rampardos is no exception to that fun colour scheme. I also just love how chunky it is!

Due to the Teraleak, which leaked a lot of Pokemon development work, we have a snapshot of an early design for this line, which was a somewhat different direction. Cranidos was still similar, keeping the same colour scheme it has in the final, though it has a more feral, dinosaur-like posture—it almost looks more like a theropod than a Pachycephalosaur here. Rampardos, however, is completely different—different colours, a meaner face, and a larger, chunkier body that’s almost humanoid. It would have been an interestion direction for the line, but I think I much prefer what we got.

Paleo Profile

This line represents Pachycephalosaurs, mostly likely the titular Pachycephalosaurus itself. Pachycephalosaurs are herbivorous dinosaurs that are well known for their domed, hardened heads. There’s been much speculation over what this was used for—Pokemon goes with the usual hypothesis, which is being used for head-butting each other. However, this theory has been called into question in the past, mostly to ask if a Pachycephalosaur could survive a direct impact on its skull, as is usually depicted, without serious injury. Some suggest it wasn’t a direct headbutt, but head-butts on the flank instead. Either way, though, Pachycephalosaurs were head-butting something—with their reinforced skulls, and signs of impact on them, they were likely hitting each other, just maybe not as directly as animals like bighorn sheep do.

Although Cranidos looks like a younger version of Rampardos, in reality a young Pachycephalosaur would actually look quite different. Young Pachycephalosaurs didn’t have the domed heads, as that was something that developed as they matured. Originally, we mistook young Pachycephalosaurs as their own species, only to find they were just young Pachycephalosauruses all along.

Pachycephalosaurs are a pretty standard dinosaur in popular culture—perhaps not on the same page as T. rex and Stegosaurus, but often included in expanded rosters of dinos. They are very unique dinosaurs, and still not much is known about them. Therefore it’s very cool to see that one of Pokemon’s first, actual, official dinosaurs is from this family.

Perhaps a little by the book, but if it ain’t broke—why fix it? Cranidos and Rampardos are a clean, simple but good representation of the dinosaurs they’re meant to represent. What more can you ask for?

Misc. Trivia

• Cranidos and Rampardos are the only pure Rock Type Fossil Mons.
• Rampardos’s Japanese name is Rampald, which might reference being bald, a hilarious but apt comparison to make about Pachycephalosaurs.
• It’s unknown if Pachycephalosaurs had feathers or scales. Those closely related to it tended to have scales, however, so at the time being that seems more likely.
• Rampardos’s dex entries imply that it’s not very smart, and in fact its brain even shrinks upon evolution. This probably references the fact that dinosaurs had relatively small brains (although this doesn’t necessarily mean that they were completely unintelligent!)

But for Rampardos? No thoughts. Only head-butting.