CDEF

Getting All Those Animals on Noah's Ark

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A frequent question I am asked at my workshops when I deal with Noah's flood is: "How did Noah get all the different species of animals that are on the Earth today on the Ark?" The first thing we have to realize is that he took only the air breathing animals that walk on the land. This would include the mammals, reptiles and birds but not the insects. Most insects have a portion of their life cycle spent in the water so they could survive outside the Ark. Each kind of animal was taken in twos or sevens. The Biblical kind is not at the species level., but at a much higher level.

Biblical kinds that went on the Ark are broader categories than the typical species. Both creationists and evolutionists agree that the common dog is probably descended from the wolf or a wolf like creature. All the types of dogs; poodles, daschunds, collies, great danes, etc. have a common origin. John Woodmorappe has done some excellent work in a technical book titled "Noah's Ark; A Feasibility Study" that explains this issue. Here is a table from his book that itemizes the animals that would go on the Ark.

Adding extinct animals and the need for seven of the clean animals we still would have enough space. Species are not kinds we are describing and the general test to differentiate would be chromosome count and similar body structure. Based on that type of analysis the original created "dog" kind that Noah took on the Ark probably included all the domestic dogs plus the, wolves, dingoes, coyotes and possibly others. The genetic richness of the created "kinds" would have been as broad as possible based on the laws of genetics. New species in the narrow sense could appear based on natural selection and environmental conditions, but NO new kinds could appear since new information would have to be added to the genetic codes and that is impossible. We can tell from the count of chromosomes, which animals can be in the same kind, but the creationists need to do more research in this area for firm conclusions. The number of chromosomes as an indicator of kind is not meant to be exclusive. For example a reptile and a mammal may have the same number but would obviously not be the same kind. Count was only intended as a "possible" indication of kind. In higher animals you certainly do not see different numbers of chromosomes in male and female producing viable young, so it's a possible help in defining kind. Macroevolution would be seen when the number of chromosomes changed within a genetic continuum. This has NEVER been observed in nature. Increasing information in genetics is the essential piece that is missing from evolution. Copying errors, mutations, do not provide new information. If evolutionary scientists have only skulls of the many breeds of dogs today I believe we would have many different species of dogs.

Here are several articles related to Biblical kinds that help explain the situation.

Looking at the Original Kinds H. M. Morris 1988 10 4 15-16 CENM
Howling Hybrids (dog kinds) Anonymous 1992 14 1 7 CENM
The Genesis Kinds in the Modern World F. L. Marsh 1964 1 0 30 CRSQ
The Genesis Kinds and Hybridization: Has Man Ever Crossed With Any Animal? F. L. Marsh 1973 10 1 31 CRSQ
The Magnificence of Kinds as Demonstrated by Candids (dog kinds) H. R. Siegler 1974 11 2 94 CRSQ
Have the Genesis Kinds Ever Crossed? F. L. Marsh 1981 18 3 164 CRSQ
Genetic Integrity of the "Kinds" (Baramins): A Working Hypothesis A. J. Jones 1982 19 1 13 CRSQ
Some Thoughts on Kinds in regards to CRSQ 19(3):156-75 and 19(1):13-8, 1982. H. R. Siegler 1983 20 2 122 CRSQ
Genesis Kinds F. L. Marsh 1991 28 3 109 CRSQ
'Counting Dinosaurs: How Many Different Kinds Were There?' by P. Dodson in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Science" 87:7608-12, 1990. Anonymous 1990 17 2 70 Origins

CENM "Creation Ex Nihilo Magazine"
CRSQ "Creation Research Society Quarterly"

Recommended reading:
Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study by Woodmorappe

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