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Pokémon Related Reference Material 2...
In regards to a mystery I know of regarding Pokémon research...
The first person to publish research on Pokémon was a French author in the late 18th century, Count Tajirin. But if you look through the records of the 18th century when Count Tajirin lived, it's not only when the earliest Pokémon research began. It is also the era of research starting on many other creatures.
Until than point, research of animals, plants and legendary beings was all lumped in as things that weren't humans. The only notable research came from ancient Greece in the 4th Century BC from a scholar known as Aristotle, who had catalogued approximately 500 varieties of animal, but among them were none that appeared to be Pokémon.
Aristotle divided creatures into four broad categories, humans, animals with red blood, animals without red blood and animals resembling plants.
Animals without red blood include insects, shellfish, octopuses and squids.
Animals resembling plants included starfish and sea cucumbers.
The largest category, animals with red blood, was further divided into two subcategories, animals that give birth to their young and animals that lay eggs.
Animals that give birth to their young are what we would now refer to as mammals.
Animals that lay eggs included birds in the sky, creatures that slither on land (snakes, lizards, frogs) and fish in the water.
Surprisingly, Aristotle actually classified whales as separate from fish.
He reasoned that as whales breathe air, they must have lungs, and came to the conclusion that they give birth to their young.
However, Aristotle knew nothing of Pokémon.
After Aristotle, there was no further research in this vein until the 18th century.
It was a common opinion that among all the creatures on Earth, the greatest chosen by god were humans, and there was no value in deeply examining other species.
