What is your Favorite Fossil Pokemon?

As an aficiando of prehistoric creatures, Fossil Pokemon are inevitably a group of Pokemon that I express usually adulation for. From the marine invertebrates to the classical non-avian dinosaurs of the past; there's a lot of these critters I love.

To cite the top favorites.

My favorite amongst them is Dracovish, that haphazardly chimeric beast composed out of a thyreophoran's ass and the iconic countenance of the Dunkleosteus. It and its awkward brethren, whose 'birth' is caused by the apathy of a certain woman in the middle of nowhere in Galar, all hearken back to the awkward, incipient ages of paleontology, when haggard professors blew up each others dig sites and cobbled up whatever bones they could get in order to hastily create 'discoveries'; and something about that tumultuous beginnings and their legacy being reflected (e.g. Crystal Palatce Dinosaurs) touches me.

Outside of that, as someone who likes predatory invertebrates, Omastar is a classic of Gen 1 and is a highlight of a Generation that I otherwise have misgivings for. It's been a favorite spanning even as early as when I was a child whose exposure to Pokemon was TCG cards and some games. Also, I was in the Omanyte club before Twitch Plays Pokemon was ever a thing; look at those googly eyes!

Archeops stood out to me as a threatening-looking avian beast when I first saw it and as a paleontology person it still catches my eye. The actual Archaeopteryx is nowadays accepted as a transitional fossil, there's countless more dinosaurs both in or outside the theropod family with feathers and/or similar filaments, and rather than being a 'missing link', it's now accepted and known that birds are dinosaurs; the surviving archosaurs of the present day alongside their closest cousins the crocodiles. But Archeops, being a reptile-faced feathered, hearkens back to the strange, chimeric creature that early paleontologists probably saw; and I can't deny that Archen in particular is goofy adorable.

Cradily is an underrated crinoid and I always felt it had a distinct vibe even amongst the Fossils. It could be partly because it tickles upon design sensibilities I have a soft spot for in the first place: like those threatening eyes suspended within shadow and/or the eyespots that make the illusion of a goofy bucked face.

Spoiler