How could all the world's animals fit on Noah's Ark?

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How did all the animals fit on Noah’s Ark?

Caribou

When someone asks you how at least two of every kind of animal in the world could have fitted on Noah's Ark, ask them: “How big was the Ark, and how many animals had to fit on it?” They almost certainly won't know, but if they work it out they will find there was plenty of room for the animals and food.

Genesis 6:15 in the Bible tells us Noah's Ark was at least 135 meters long (300 cubits), 22.5 meters wide (50 cubits), and 13.5 meters high (30 cubits). It could have been larger because several larger-sized cubits were used. But the 45-centimeter (18-inch) cubit is long enough to show the enormous size of the Ark.

A cubit was the length of a man's arm from fingertips to elbow.

Huge deck area

Elephants

Noah's Ark was three stories high (Genesis 6:16). This made its total deck area equivalent to the area of about 36 lawn tennis courts. The average size of animal is about the size of an adult sheep. From this, scientists have calculated that the Ark could have held about 522 railroad stock cars full of sheep-sized animals. This is eight freight trains with 65 carriages on each!

Remember too that not every creature went on the Ark. Fish and other sea creatures didn't go on, and they account for a very large percentage of the world's animals. It was only land-dwelling, air-breathing animals that went on the Ark — and even many of them are very small, such as spiders, worms, beetles, etc.

When we realize that not every type of butterfly, snake, kangaroo, or whatever had to go on board — only the major “kinds” — we find that there might have been only about 35,000 animals on board.

So the question is not so much how did they all fit, but what did Noah use all the left-over room for?

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