spend fifteen minutes or so sketching out some of the animals and plants your characters might encounter in your world.
.......Well. If you insist...
In all honesty, only one of those (perinseed) is my own creation. The other plants I got by googling "cool plants", and the animals I pretty much went to Zooborns and clicked all the animal names I didn't recognize. ^^;; But I did manage to draw some conclusions along with cute little animals:
1. The continent has horses but no cows. People instead domesticated various types of goat and antelope for meat, milk, and fur. Also some rabbits (in WV) and birds (chickens, ducks).
2. There may be 'regular' cats in the south, but the NF peoples instead make pets of fossas to hunt down vermin. *squees some more over these adorable cat-weasel things* I may have to give them thicker coats to make up for transplanting them from Madagascar?
3. RESURRECTION PLANT. *resists urge to make it revive others rather than just itself* >.> But woo! Something awesome to put in the desert ruins! \o/
4. Tempted as I am to put in jackalopes, I think they really wouldn't fit in the mood. *shrugs* Oh well, they're in plenty of my other worlds.
5. I may need to add more birds, but I think I'd want to base it more on what their calls sound like. Then they can be plot relevant, too!