Continued from
If gnomes can be hunters, what should their starting pet be? per order of Wain.
Crotalus Horridus wrote:Worba wrote:Not a seamless fit I'll grant you, but things like an extra head are more incidental (>>) and covered under typical species diversity - e.g. chromaggus is a core hound even though he's scaly not furry / made of magma. Also if you're going to disqualify the chimera due to des having 4 legs instead of 2, then by the same logic you have also ruled out hydras (and similarly a requirement of 3 heads would rule out core hounds). Etc.
Whereas the wings are definitely not-incidental (>)
Chimera have
> Wings
>> Head models similar to the goat headed chimera
Hydras have
> No wings
Core hounds have
> No wings
>> 2 heads
>> Stubby tail
By virtue of movement type alone, that rules out hydra and core hounds
Although Desghidorah has similarities to Chimaeras, his body looks very Core Hound-ish.
>His body is very stocky, and his legs go out to the side. He also weighs a lot and is quite, about 75,000 tons and 50 meters tall. Size, body shape, and weight are shared with core hounds.
>He flys rarely, mainly moving on land or standing in place destroying things.
>The horns resemble a goat, but his head resembles a dog in it's shape.
Also, animals that look nothing like each other have been put into families together for just a few characteristics. Look at the Platypus and Echidna, they are look extremely different in appearance, yet they they are both in the same family because they lay eggs, they are Monotremes. Also, what about the Water Strider family? Blizzard put Spore Walkers in with the Water Skates, a bug that looks completely different from them.
He does have a flightless form by the way;

We're just talking in terms of how wow classifies specifies, which is decidedly not scientific like in RL; and in wow large functional wings go far beyond the more minor anatomical differences found in wow beast families.
I've been watching wow tamable species "evolve" over the years and the best guideline is what I call "the squint test", basically if you can quint a bit and (seriously) imagine the general profile as an existing species, it has a chance. Thus we have not only beasts, but demons, elementals, insects and etc.
Thus if you squint at this...
It looks a lot closer to this...
Than to this...
Or to this...
... and the wings / lack thereof are the primary reason.
Now the
flightless version of Desghidorah could kinda/sorta contend for what you're after; still a stretch (unusual number of legs for a hydra and necks / tail much longer than any existing core hound's), but it could conceivably happen at some point.