Oh man this sounds so cool! I wanna play! Personally, I would take an existing animal as a "base", then change its name, description, and a select few of its abilities. You would still use a lot of the stats of the original base animal, but it is now disguised as something else so PC's shouldn't really know the differences.
Also, one of my first thoughts was Pokemon. Just gonna throw that in there.
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Just converting them strait over would look something like this;
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Air Elemental
Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed fly 100 ft. (perfect); AC +3 natural armor; Attack slam (1d4); Ability Scores Str 12, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 4, Wis 11, Cha 11; Special Attacks whirlwind; Special Qualities air mastery, darkvision 60 ft., elemental traits
7th-level Advancement: Size Medium; Attack slam (1d6); Ability Scores +2 Str, +4 Dex, +2 Con
Earth Elemental
Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed 20 ft., burrow 20 ft.; AC +7 natural armor; Attack slam (1d6); Ability Scores Str 16, Dex 8, Con 13, Int 4, Wis 11, Cha 11; Special Attacks earth mastery; Special Qualities darkvision 60 ft., earth glide, elemental traits, tremorsense 60 ft.
7th-level Advancement: Size Medium; AC +2 natural armor; Attack slam (1d8); Ability Scores +4 Str, +4 Con
Fire Elemental
Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed 50 ft.; AC +3 natural armor; Attack slam (1d4); Ability Scores Str 12, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 4, Wis 11, Cha 11; Special Attacks burn; Special Qualities darkvision 60 ft., elemental traits, immune to fire, vulnerability to cold
7th-level Advancement: Size Medium; Attack slam (1d6); Ability Scores +2 Str, +4 Dex, +4 Con
Water Elemental
Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed 20 ft., swim 90 ft.; AC +6 natural armor; Attack slam (1d6); Ability Scores Str 14, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 4, Wis 11, Cha 11; Special Attacks drench, vortex, water mastery; Special Qualities darkvision 60 ft., elemental traits
7th-level Advancement: Size Medium; Attack slam (1d6); Ability Scores +2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con
Since elementals work differently than animals, it might be better to skip the automatic advancement option entirely, and have them remain size small unless the elemental companion's master pays a feat cost to advance them to size medium at around level 7 (10 for rangers), and open up options to pay additional feats to advance them to size large around level 11 (14 for rangers).
The Natural Boon feat would allow faster advancement for multi-class characters or rangers, as normal.
Clerics in this culture might be able to gain these companions if they have the appropriate Air, Earth, Fire or Water sub-domains (using rules similar to those for the delayed access animal companions for the Animal Domain, and with whatever minor spell tweaks would fit this theme).
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A different twist on this would be to just use the basic Animal Companions, but create Elemental Air, Earth, Fire and Water templates that would modify them to represent elemental versions of normal animals.
But that would take me a few minutes to cobble together, and my muse demands ice cream right now. :)
Edit: Ooh, back in time to beat the edit-lock!
Templates
Elemental Creature (CR +1)
This template can be applied to any animal or vermin. The new creature becomes an Outsider, and gains the HD and BAB of an outsider, but uses the save categories, skill points and class skills of the animal type (even if it was originally a vermin). The elemental creature does not gain proficiency with any type of armor or weapons, but otherwise has the traits of the outsider type and the elemental subtype. Animals and Vermin modified by this template gain Int 3, can understand (but not speak) the appropriate elemental language, and lose the Mindless trait. An elemental creature that reaches size Large also gains DR 5/-, and one that reaches size Huge gains DR 10/-.
Air
Rebuild Rules: Senses add darkvision 60 ft.; Defensive Abilities elemental traits; Speed add fly speed equal to twice its highest movement rate (maximum 100 ft.) with perfect maneuverability, remove any burrow speed; Special Attacks air mastery; Attributes +2 Dex, base Int raises to 3
Earth
Rebuild Rules: Senses add darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft.; AC +4 natural armor; Defensive Abilities elemental traits; Speed add burrow speed equal to ground speed, remove any fly speed; Special Attacks earth mastery; Attributes +2 Str, base Int raises to 3; Special Qualities earth glide
Fire
Rebuild Rules: Senses add darkvision 60 ft.; Defensive Abilities elemental traits, immunity to fire; Weaknesses vulnerability to cold; Speed double ground speed, remove any swim speed; Special Attacks burn; Attributes base Int raises to 3
Water
Rebuild Rules: Senses add darkvision 60 ft.; AC +3 natural armor; Defensive Abilities elemental traits; Speed add swim speed equal to double ground speed or current highest speed, whichever is better; Special Attacks drench, water mastery; Attributes +2 Str, base Int raises to 3
Adding these templates to an animal companion, class feature mount or familiar should require a feat tax, like Improved Familiar or ‘Elemental Companion.’
This second version would allow someone to have an earth elemental creature lion or an air creature shark or a fire creature warhorse, as suits your fancy, gaining many elemental abilities, wrapped up in an animal companion-shaped package (but skipping somewhat unique abilities like whirlwind and vortex, and being more primal and animalistic in nature than your basic humanoid elemental, explaining their reduced skills).
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You might want to check out the Expanded Shaman from Kobold Press. In addition to presenting the Shaman class itself (essentially a more animal spirit oriented spontaneous druid) it also details a few Shaman archetypes, including the Elemental Shaman which gets to choose an elemental animal companion! A number of different elemental animal companions are fully detailed and everything :)
