#Striped dolphin

[namu-the-orca]

Cetacean colour anomalies existing as a gradient let's goooooo.

No seriously I love it when this is a thing. Still part of the colour anomalies poster(s) series. Currently 102 illustrations down, and quite a few more to go.

Depicted here are Atlantic spotted dolphin, Pacific white-sided dolphin and Striped dolphin, with various colour-altering afflictions.

[inatungulates]

Striped dolphin "Stenella" coeruleoalba

Observed by wayneosborn, CC BY-NC

[videogamewhales]

[ID: A render of a striped dolphin from Wildlife Park 3. End ID.]

Striped dolphin from the Wildlife Park series (2003-)

[wholphintooth]

fishmarket (me) best frind

[opellisms]

Round 3 MMM artwork

Striped dolphin, Patagonian mara Homo habilis, Pacific spiny lumpsucker

[bethanythebogwitch]

It's been a long time coming, but we have reached the end of the series where I examine the real-life inspirations for every non-fish aquatic Pokémon. Today, I’ll be going over those introduced in gen IX. For previous entries in this series see gen I part 1, gen I part 2, gen II, gen III, gen IV, gen V, gen VI, gen VII, and gen VIII. To see my previous series where I covered the inspirations for all fish Pokémon see here. I’m saving starters and legendaries/mythicals for their own series. I will be including two paradox Pokémon even though we technically don’t know if they’re aquatic (we never see them in their natural habitats) to keep this post from being too short. Also if you’re looking for Clodsire, check the gen II entry.

Paldea gave us many things, one of them being the end of the tadpole trio. Like Poliwag and Tympole before it, Tadbulb is a tadpole, the larval form of a frog. It’s also a lightbulb.

(image: a tadpole)

Bellibolt is an adult frog that is also an avocado. Specifically, it is a halved avocado with its belly organ being the pit.

(image: a halved avacado)

Speaking of its belly organ, that is based off of a plasma globe, a common toy that looks like a ball filled with electricity arcing off of a smaller, inner ball.

(image: a plasma ball, the king of children's science museums)

Bellibolt’s eye-like organs are a form of defensive mimicry. Eyespots, fake eyes, are used by many species as ways of deterring predation, often by making it look as though it has already spotted a potential ambush predator or by making it seem like part of a much larger animal. Bellibolt’s eyespots are likely a reference to the Cuyaba dwarf frog, which has large eyespots on its rear. The frog’s eyespots can release poison while Bellibolt’s can release electricity.

(image: the behind of a Cuyaba dwarf frog with its eyespots visible. I will restrain myself from making any crude jokes)

Finizen and Palafin are dolphins and I’m honestly surprised it took 9 generations to get a dolphin Pokémon. They seem to be based primarily on the bottlenose dolphin as its pretty much the default dolphin in pop culture. Picture a dolphin in your head, that’s a bottlenose. It also draws inspiration from the striped dolphin, as both have a stripe going down their sides.

(image: a striped dolphin jumping from the water)

Finizen also drawn from dolphin behavior as they are very curious and playful. The bubble ring they play with is a direct reference to real dolphins blowing bubbles to amuse themselves. When it evolves into Palafin it adds superhero to the dolphin influence. Zero form Palafin looks almost identical to Finizen, but it is actually a hero hiding amongst the citizens, ready to put on its costume and save the day. It needing to switch out to become its hero form is reference to the trope of superheroes needing to get into a hiding spot to switch into their costume incognito. Think Clark Kent ducking into a phone booth to change into Superman.

(image: a comic panel of Clark Kent using a phone booth to get into his Superman costume)

The superhero gimmick may also be a reference to stories of wild dolphins saving people who are drowning or being threatened by sharks. It is primarily based on western superheroes, though some of its design elements are suggestive of sentai heroes. Its shiny form being black references orcas as well as the hero turning to a villain or getting a darker redesign. Think Spider-man’s black costume period. I’m not entirely sure how dolphin + superhero resulted in possibly the ugliest Pokémon design in the history of the franchise. It’s a shame because I really love the concept, I just wish it’s design didn’t suck Stunky ass. Besides superheroes, Palafin’s humanoid hero form draws from the boto encantado, a legend from around the amazon river of river dolphins who can take on the form of humans to come on shore and engage in partying and seducing humans.

(image: artwork of a bota encantado in human and dolphin forms. source)

I swear I once read a similar legend where the resulting human form only had one leg, but I couldn’t find any references to it so I may be mixing up completely different legends. The one leg would fit since Palafin stands on its tail.

The first of our paradox Pokémon is Iron Bundle and I don’t really have much to say about it. It’s just a robotic Delibird. I feel like the future paradox Pokémon in general and very uninspired designs, with Iron Valiant being the only one that’s not just a robot version of a present Pokémon. As a Delibird variant, it is based on a penguin. I may specifically be a rockhopper penguin due to the spikey ruffs of feathers on its head.

(image: a yassified rockhopper penguin)

The other big inspiration for Delibird is Santa Claus, being a red and white jolly fellow that carries around a sack full of presents. The bird with a bundle aspect might also reference the popular image of storks delivering babies. Iron bundle adds some more references to winter activities and toys. Its head can pop off like a jack-in-the-box and its tail seems to be a snow globe. The tail could also be an artificial snow maker machine. Its feet look like skis and could be either water skis or snow skis. If its tail is a snow maker, the snow skis probably fit better.

Walking Wake is an interesting one as it’s allegedly the ancestor of Suicune, a Pokémon that magically created by Ho-oh instead of being a natural creature. This confused me until I came across the fan theory that none of the paradox Pokémon are actually from the past/future. Rather the terastal crystals of area zero have the ability to warp reality based on people’s wishes. An example of this is the crystals allowing the AI professor to be created despite that kind of technology not existing in the Pokémon world. In this theory, the crystals created the paradox Pokémon in response to the professor’s expectations of what past/future Pokémon would look like. This would also explain why the Pokedex entries all describe the paradox Pokémon as being similar to creatures from rumors or a National Enquirer style conspiracy magazine. The professor being familiar with these accounts would shape their expectations of what past/future Pokémon would be like and therefore how the crystals created the paradox Pokémon. This explains why a unique, artificial being like Suicune (and with the new announcements, Raikou) could have an ancestor. It’s just someone’s idea of what a prehistoric Suicune would be like brought to life. Walking Wake looks like Suicune combined with a therapod dinosaur. Its ability to walk on water comes from the original Suicune, but also from a basilisk lizard. These lizards can run on the surface of the water for short time periods thanks to their speed and very broad feet, an ability that has granted then the nickname “Jesus lizard”. Basilisks also run on only their hind legs when running on water, fitting with Walking Wake being a biped.

(image: a basalisk lizard running on water)

Its twin tails both have a wave shape and come out from behind and at an angle. This makes them look a lot like the wake left behind by a boat.

(image: a boat wake as seen from above)

[artofsoul1999]

This is my first time illustrating a striped dolphin and it's certainly not gonna be the last. While searching for reference photos, I found a lot of different variations in terms of markings, so I might draw more in the future.

[vanadiumvalor]

The last planet of the solar system is Neptune, the Great White Shark! His largest moon by far is Triton, the Striped Dolphin.

[plaguedsoulrealism]

Did a drawing of my OC, Bane. Man it’s been a while that I drew and posted him.

[oh-dear-so-queer]

Intersexual or hermaphrodite individuals (possessing external female genitals along with testes and other internal male reproductive organs) occasionally occur in Striped Dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba).

"Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity" - Bruce Bagemihl

[buwheal]

BEACH OUTFIT 💥💥💥💥

He used to surf the web back in 98'.

[antiqueanimals]

Mammals. Written and illustrated by Beverly Armstrong. 1988.

Internet Archive

[inatungulates]

Striped dolphin "Stenella" coeruleoalba

Observed by xrufray, CC BY-NC

Features for recognizing the bridled dolphins, pt. 6: striped dolphin

Perhaps the most strongly-patterned of the bridled dolphins, the striped dolphin earns its name with its complex series of markings. There can be considerable variations in this species, but in general it resembles something like a more-exaggerated version of its near relative/descendant, the Clymene dolphin "Stenella" clymene.

Useful features of pattern for ID:

Dorsal cape is high and arched, with a very obvious intrusion of the paler thoracic patch. The thoracic blaze is broad with crisp boundaries and upswept, reaching about to the dorsal fin base. This creates the appearance of the back part of the cape sweeping forward. The lighter thoracic coloration and the dark dorsal cape coloration are high-contrast.

Dark and (typically) thin stripe running from eye to anal slit on the underside. A smaller stripe breaks off behind the eye and runs above the flipper, dipping toward the underside and often acting as something of a border to the paler ventral coloration. These stripes are subject to intraspecific variation, but typically there are two stripes running along the lower sides of the animal, as shown here.

Bridle is fairly prominent, with especially well-developed dark stripe running from eye to flipper. The flippers are dark.

Upper jaw is dark; lower jaw is mainly pale, though it often has a dark lipline.

Useful features of body form for ID:

Something of a generic bridled dolphin structurally: relatively slender overall, rostrum of medium length and robustness, typically falcate dorsal fin.

[videogamewhales]

[ID: An image of a striped dolphin from Petz: Dolphinz Encounters. End ID.]

Striped dolphin from Petz: Dolphinz Encounters (2009)

[idoodle2draw-marquer]

haha yeah

[return-to-pterosaur-phase]

mer bumbgnelbee. idc