Tyrunt and Tyrantrum

Tyrunt and Tyrantrum are part of a duo of Fossil Mons introduced in Gen VI, being restored from the Jaw Fossil. They are unique from other fossils in their evolution—Tyrunt evolves into Tyrantrum at level 39 only in the daytime. Its counterpart, Aurorus, also evolves at level 39, but at night.

Gen VI brings us more official dinosaurs to the Fossil Mon lineup, and some very iconic ones at that—with this line representing probably one of the most well-known dinosaurs of all time, Tyrannosaurus rex. A T. rex Pokemon feels inevitable, yet it still took almost 20 years for it to happen! Tyrunt appears as a young, “baby” T. rex, while Tyrantrum stands as the fearsome, fully grown adult we’re used to seeing.

Perhaps long overdue, but in a series already full of dinosaur-like, and even T. rex-like Pokemon, how does the Tyrantrum line stand out to truly represent the genus? In a lot of clever little ways, I think. Let’s take a look.

Pokemon Design

The Tyrantrum line was designed by Hitoshi Ariga, who started work with Pokemon by doing illustrations for the TCG. He was later brought into do a lot of design work for X/Y, and this included designing Pokemon. It seems he also has an interest in paleontology, likely leading him to creating both the Tyrantrum and Aurorus lines—and also explains the clever details in both designs that give away how invested he really is in this field!

But first—let’s talk about the Pokemon designs themselves. As I mentioned, Pokemon has always had dinosaur-inspired designs. Yet everything about the Tyrunt line reads distinctly Tyrannosaurus, while also having a unique spin on it. Tyrunt is adorably hunched over, making it look small but also bulky—it has crests over its eyes (a feature of Tyrannosaurids) and a puff of feathers on its neck. Tyrantrum takes the royal element fully into its design, with a crest that looks like a crown, and a beard and cape of feathers. It really does look regal, which helps it a lot with standing out as the true Tyrant Lizard King of the Pokedex.

This line is the first Rock/Dragon combo of the Fossil Mons, also standing out as something fierce among the fossils. As Gen VI introduced the Fairy type, I think this dex was also just more generous in giving out the Dragon typing. Its mechanic to evolve only in the daytime is unusual—I’m not sure what it really represents for Tyrantrum itself, although with its golden accents in its design, it doesn’t feel entirely off. I think it more has to do with its counterpart, Aurorus, who represents a nighttime aurora borealis, evolving at night—and therefore to pair with Tyrantrum, it had to evolve in the day.

Paleo Profile

Perhaps it feels silly to talk about Tyrannosaurus rex as if no one knows about it, but as one of the most popular fossil animals in the world, there’s plenty to say about good ol’ T. rex. So the struggle is really, how to keep this brief?

Tyrannosaurs, if they weren’t so ingrained in us as a model dinosaur, would’ve been quite weird compared to their contemporaries—even their fellow theropods. A large head built for biting and small, two-fingered arms show us these were weird, highly adapted creatures. With powerful bites, strong senses of smell, and T. rex itself having perfect binocular vision, they were no doubt incredible hunters in the prehistoric world.

The biggest struggle we continue to have, with decades and decades worth of T. rex depictions, is how it actually looked in life. Nowadays, most people imagining a T. Rex will picture the one from Jurassic Park, which perhaps grasps the main points of the ‘rex, but not the whole. From what we know now, the beast was chunkier, with a longer muzzle and ornate crests over its muzzle and eyes, and likely had lips covering its teeth.

And then there’s the even bigger debate—feathers. This is a tricky one. Tyrannosaurs evolved from feathery kin—they were very closely related to dinosaurs we know were feathered, such as dromeosaurs (raptors.) And we have evidence of other tyrannosaurs being feathered—Guanlong and Yutyrannus being prime examples. However, those tyannosaurs were a lot smaller than T. rex, leading us to wonder if being covered in feathers might overheat the big creature. We also have skin impressions from Tyrannosaurus rex that show scaly skin. However… these skin impressions are from a very tiny part of the giant animal. Until we find more evidence to the contrary, the current consensus seems to be: T. rex was likely not fully coated in feathers, however this doesn’t rule out patches of feathers, or sparser bits that could’ve covered its body.

Ariga, was ahead of his time in designing the Tyrantrum line the way he did—keeping it to a mostly scaly body, but with some tufts of feathers. In 2013, when these games first came out, feathery rexes were becoming all the rage in paleoart. However, popular media still kept them scaly—so I imagine the designs for these Pokemon were made to appeal to both sides at the time.

What more is there to say about T. rex in popular media? It is pretty much the poster child dinosaur for every child and adult. Everyone knows it and its name, and can probably hear the roar it uses in Jurassic Park at just the mention of it (whether T. rex actually roared is also for debate, as roaring is a very mammalian thing.) Since its discovery in 1905, the famous dino has trudged through the ages—from the lumbering, tail-dragging, dumb beast of the early 1900s, to the active, intelligent, terrifying movie monster of the 1990s and beyond. The rex has and will continue to captivate the public for years to come.

When it comes to Tyrunt and Tyrantrum, there really couldn’t be any better Pokemon to represent the King of the Dinosaurs. Regal, beautifully designed, and unique in its own way of depicting T. rex, these are some wonderful additions to the Fossil Mon roster.

Misc. Trivia

• One of Tyrunt’s dex entries imply that its restored form is “different from its form of long ago”. This might be another tie into the Jurassic Park logic of looking different, and perhaps explaining the lack of feathers, even though Tyrunt is appropriately feathered according to modern ideas.
• One of Tyrantrum’s dex entries say it’s from 100,000,000 years ago (they really love this number.) At least this makes more sense than Anorith, however this time this is too far back for Tyrannosaurus, which lived only 69 million years ago.
• In New Pokemon Snap, Tyrantrum is found in the volcano area. Volcanos are a common backdrop for prehistoric scenes, especially in the earlier half of the 20th century.