I don't mind the correction, and it was mild in any event. Yes, I meant the vertabrate animals of the classes of Reptiles, Birds, Mammals, Amphibians and Fish. Of course, the analogy must remain a loose one. For example, neither the Sahuagin or Kuo-Toa fit either the role of fish or amphibian (respectively) very well. For one thing the Sahuagin have legs. I considered the Bullywugs for my amphibian species, but I needed a good underdark race too. So I figured a wet underdark was better anyway.
Of course, there is also going to be some very bad science in my world. I have tried to make the ocean currents and desert regions match earth's lattitudes, plate tectonics work properly, and think ecologically when placing creatures and monsters. This pseudo-intellectual tinkering may be more annoying than not trying to make the geology and meteorology work at all, but unrealistic maps really drive me nuts. I hate, hate, hate the hot Anauroch Desert.
Plus, I'm going to use Pleistocene rather than Holocene animals in my campaign world, but to get the coolest looking creatures, I'm going to be mixing across 7 continents and 2 million years. I'm sure it would drive a real paleontologist or biologist nuts.
I should also clarify that I'm not planning to eliminate the core PHB races (whatever they might be) but unless I really like them they are going to be made marginal endangered species. Elves will never venture out of the Feywild, the dwarves will have been wiped out by the goblins, tieflings will be unique individuals, and Eladrin will live in a far off exotic land called Eladri (refered to as the medievals would refer to the kingdom of Prester John.) Since I'm using D&D races anyway, I didn't really feel like I was being original, so why bother throwing the default races out completely?
Oh, one final insult to scientific sensibilities. Homo Erectus Illumians who were enslaved by the Illithid and taken to the Astral Plane. They eventually became the Githyanki.
