Is Yoshi a Koopa?

June 13, 2017 10:54 AM

In the Mario games, I'm pretty sure that Yoshi is supposed to be a dinosaur but in Super Mario Run the yellow yoshi with a red saddle looks almost exactly like a red-shelled koopa with a rounded snout instead of a beak. Do yoshis and koopas belong to the same evolutionary branch? Does this mean that koopas are dinosaurs? Is Bowser a dinosaur?
posted by OverlappingElvis to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (5 answers total)

Best answer: Nope, Yoshi is canonically a member of the species known simply as Yoshi. That's right, Yoshi is a Yoshi, and all Yoshis are dinosaurs. All of them can lay eggs too, regardless of gender or sex.

Koopas are perhaps unsurprsingly members of the Koopa species, which is turtle-like, though there are many known sub-species or varieties.

Bowsers are usually taken to be a sub-type of Koopa, but "Unlike Koopa Troopas, Koopas belonging to Bowser's species do not have a beak. " So that's a nice diagnostic characteristic to use for field identification.

If you want to know how turtles and dinosaurs are related on Earth, see here. Unfortunately I can not find any canonical information on the evolutionary history of Koopas and Yoshis. Sorry.
posted by SaltySalticid at 11:06 AM on June 13, 2017 [22 favorites]

Best answer: This is the most important question that has ever been, or will be, asked here.

Yoshi's full name is actually T. Yoshisaur Munchikoopas. His last name indicates that he likes to eat koopas. He is a Yoshisaurus. He is not a Koopa.

Bowser is king of the Koopas! Koopas are turtles. So no, he isn't a dinosaur.
posted by the webmistress at 11:10 AM on June 13, 2017 [35 favorites]

Response by poster: Yoshi's full name is actually T. Yoshisaur Munchikoopas

Hold on a second. Is this like a Theodore Rex situation?
posted by OverlappingElvis at 11:11 AM on June 13, 2017

Genus is not given in full by the original naming authority, so it may well be Theodore, nobody knows for sure (Nb. I am making the natural assumption based on standard scientific usage that Munchikoopas is a sub-species or varietal name).
posted by SaltySalticid at 11:18 AM on June 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yoshi's full name is actually T. Yoshisaur Munchikoopas.

Munchakoopas.
posted by zarq at 11:59 AM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]