Published: 04.06.2021.
Many people ask how Noah could possibly have fit all the animal species in the world onto his ship, since there are around 1 million categorized animal species on the planet, with around 7.7 million estimated in total.1 What they don’t realize, however, is that Noah’s Ark was a regular-sized ship. Its dimensions were 300 * 50 * 30 cubits, which correspond to a size around 137.16 * 22.86 * 13.716 metres.
Limitations
However, Noah didn’t take millions of animals on board. First, he of course only took land animals. Many creationists also take the statement “in which there was the breath of life” (Gen. 7:15, RSV-CE) to mean that he only took animals which breathe air (no or few insects or spiders), onto the Ark, not all animals. Or maybe certain insects as well, which don’t take up much space.
According to Genesis, God told Noah: “Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive upon the face of all the earth.” (Gen. 7:2, RSV-CE) Previously, in Gen 6:19-20, God mentioned that Noah would need to take the animals according to their kinds, not from every species according to modern-day taxonomy.
So the main question revolves around what a kind is. Since there is no definition of it in the Bible, we rely on educated guesses. The Bible does imply that kinds can reproduce among each other, so animals which can usually reproduce with each other are usually taken to be of the same kind.
What is a kind?
The creationist organization Answers in Genesis describes its rationale in deciding which animals are part of the same kind in the paper “Determining the Ark Kinds”, published in 2011 in the Answers Research Journal. Creationists call this research baraminology, from the Hebrew word mîn for “kind” and bārā’ for “create”.
There are two major factors in deciding what a kind is: hybrid data, that is, whether multiple species can reproduce together, and what they call the “cognitum approach”, that is, whether they generally seem to be related, since Adam apparently recognized the animals on the basis of how they looked when he gave them names. The latter was also the approach behind the Linnaean taxonomy.
For many animals, hybrid data is unavailable, because research hasn’t been done or the animals are extinct. On some cases however, it is easy. “For example, crosses between dogs and wolves, wolves and coyotes, and coyotes and jackals are interpreted to mean that all these species of animals belong to a single baramin.” (p. 196)
The researches finally decided that in most cases, a kind was at the family level.
“From previous work in baraminology, researchers have suggested that the level of the baramin tends to fall at or near the taxonomic level of family (Wood 2006). There is often a strong cognitum at the family level. This suggests that the family is a good initial approximation of the level of the baramin. In some instances a strong cognitum may be above or below this level.” (p. 198)
They describe later in the article “How Could All the Animals Fit on the Ark”, that they found 1398 kinds of vertebrate, land-living animals which Noah would have taken on the ark, totaling 6744 animals.
Separate scientific papers have been produced by Answers in Genesis on the different ark kinds of mammals, birds, amphibians and specifically frogs, turtles and crocodiles.
So, Noah didn’t have to bring every single animal species on the ark, just the main kinds. After the Flood, the animals began to disperse all over the earth and thus began the process of speciation, a topic for another article in this series on Noah’s Ark.
Footnote:
1: How many species on Earth_ About 8.7 million, new estimate says ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110823180459.htm
Resources:
Jean K. Lightner, Tom Hennigan, Georgia Purdom, Bodie Hodge: Determining the Ark Kinds, Answers Research Journal 4 (2011):195–201. http://www.answersingenesis.org/arj/v4/determining-ark-kinds.pdf
How Could All the Animals Fit on the Ark: https://answersingenesis.org/noahs-ark/how-could-all-animals-fit-ark
The other studies:
Jean K. Lightner: Mammalian Ark Kinds. Answers Research Journal 5 (2012):151–204.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/arj/v5/mammalian-ark-kinds.pdf
Jean K. Lightner: Avian Ark Kinds. Answers Research Journal 6 (2013):409–466.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/arj/v6/avian-ark-kinds.pdf
Tom Hennigan: An Initial Estimate Toward Identifying and Numbering Amphibian Kinds within the Orders Caudata and Gymnophiona. Answers Research Journal 6 (2013):17–34. http://www.answersingenesis.org/arj/v6/identifying-amphibian-kinds.pdf
Tom Hennigan: An Initial Estimate toward Identifying and Numbering the Frog Kinds on the Ark: Order Anura. Answers Research Journal 6 (2013):335–365. http://www.answersingenesis.org/contents/379/arj/v6/frog_kinds_ark_anura.pdf
Tom Hennigan: An Initial Estimate toward Identifying and Numbering the Ark Turtle and Crocodile Kinds. Answers Research Journal 7 (2014):1–10. http://www.answersingenesis.org/arj/v7/ark-turtle-crocodile-kinds.pdf