>>38760182No, it has been retconned that there were NEVER animals in this world. Gamefreak have even outright said that they don't consider this planet "Earth" but the "Pokémon World".
The splitting point between realities was the 3rd movie. The original script had Ash, Pikachu and co. fighting a resurrected T-Rex skeleton, and tackled the idea that animals used to exist, and why do plants still exist.
This was scrapped for Entei and the Unown, however, which settled once and for all that they didn't want animals in this universe. Since then they have gone into more and more detail, adding gods, creation myths and ancient histories that never involved animals.
The Pokémon world is an alternate universe where Arceus created humans to interact with Pokémon after seeing how we influence the animals in our own universe. However, our design is not native to the Pokémon universe so we are unable to access the infinity energy that gives Pokémon their type and powers. What makes them a Pokémon, and not an animal or plant.
