I am unreasonably passionate about this.

Many of my fellow Imgurians seem to be labouring under a false perception about these two Pokemon.

You know these two adorable motherfuckers as Sandshrew (as depicted on the right) and Sandslash (the one on the left). And you would be correct! Because you love Pokemon! And that's rad!

But despite knowing these two lovable Ground-type Gen-I's for the Pokemon they have been for many years, too often do my fellow fans make the same error regarding their origins.

In other words, y'all use pangolins and armadillos interchangeably with these guys and it annoys me for reasons I don't fully understand.

So listen up, friends.

When it comes to which animals are the basis for which Pokemon, some of y'all seem to think they're interchangable.

And that's just not the case.

While the varieties of armadillo and pangolin (not to mention various cousins and animals that were used for similar inspiration) share numerous traits, it's pretty clear which ones are which, and which ones were subsequently used as the basis for our favourite spiny Ground-types.

This is a banded armadillo.

You can tell it's a banded armadillo because its armor is banded in the areas that the animal needs to be able to bend. In Spanish, it means "little armoured one." And unless Wikipedia is lying to me about this one, the Aztecs called them "turtle-rabbits."

Crazy how nature do that, right?

Different species of armadillo share one important feature when it comes to their armor.

That feature is that their armor is a series of overlapping bony plates covered with horn.

Additionally, many species of armadillo have similar physical features such as their thick front claws for digging and flat snoots - ideal for sniffing out grubs and other insects in the soil for food. They also have incisors and canines for cheek teeth rather than molars, suited for their diet.

But this is a post about Pokemon. I'm not here to be educational.

Sandshrew's primary design is based on the armadillo, and not the pangolin.

Sandshrew's armor is a series of flat, overlapping (or as near to overlapping as the style of illustration can depict) plates. It has similarly stubby front claws, just as the proud armadillo does. Sandshrew may not have the flat sniffer of its forebear, but two out of three ain't bad.

The stubby-legged little turtle-rabbit armadillo is very clearly the real-life Sandshrew we all wanted as a pet.

I mean, seriously.

Look at how cute.

Conversely, it is very clear that Sandshrew is NOT one of these mammalian balls of awesome.

This is a pangolin, and let me say this here and now:

If after reading this post, you continue to comment on pictures of pangolins with shit like "IRL Sandshrew", then you are weak, your bloodline is weak, and you will not survive the winter.

"What's the difference?" you ask. Well shut up, I'm getting to that.

Unlike the armadillo which has plates of armor formed from bone, the pangolin has overlapping scales made primarily of keratin. The scales themselves are pointed and sharp, giving a layer of offense to its defense. Like those guys who trolled in Dark Souls III with the Armor of Thorns.

To top it off, the pangolin's claws are much longer and sharper than those of an armadillos, because its primary diet consists of ants and termites; the claws are used to RIP OPEN THEIR NESTS AND FEAST ON THE JUICY INSECTS WITHIN because evolution will never stop being metal. Rather than having an abundance of sharp teeth, pangolins have very long tongues (like their cousins, the mighty aardvark) suited to slurping up their tiny prey.

See where I'm going with this?

For those reasons, our friendly neighbourhood Sandslash was designed primarily on the pangolin. And although I will concede that in the case of both Pokemon, there was a great deal of overlap and numerous other animals from which inspiration was taken, it's pretty clear which one is which.

It's uncanny.

Even their poses look alike.

So in summation:

Sandshrews are armadillos and vice versa.
Sandslashes are pangolins and vice versa.
I am way more concerned with this than I should be.

We good?