The animals in ME

[Noxomanus]

Being a great lover of animals (in a Radagast fashion) there are things considering the animals in ME I wonder about.

First of all,did the animals "awake" like The Children of Illuvátar?I seem to remember that in the Silm beasts just started to appear in the forests of ME.

And then,the monsters and terrible beasts send by Melkor and hunted by Oromë,would these be Tolkiens way of dealing with prehistoric fossil beasts?It's a fact we don't know how much time was between the shaping of Arda and the coming of the Elves but probably a veeeeery great amount of time.

And last,could those animals on the dark side be called corrupted and evil or were they just innocent and used by Melkor or Sauron? (and I'm not talking about intelligent Wargs or Dragons here,but simple animals like dogs or horses or Mumakil)