How did Noah fit all the kinds of animals on the ark?

The question is often phrased as, “how did Noah fit all the different species on the ark?” However this question has an assumption in it. The Holy Bible says, 

The Bible does not say Noah had to bring every specie on the ark. Noah was only required to bring the parent “kinds” of those species. For example, it would only take two dogs, that came off the ark, to make all the different kinds of dogs today.

A book called Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study¹, creationist researcher John Woodmorappe says that, there were at most 16,000 original kinds of animals needed on the ark to make all the known species today. So now that we understand that millions of animals were not required to be on the ark only the original kinds we need to look at how big the ark was.

The Bible says,

“13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. 16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.” (Genesis 6:13-16)

So the Bible gives us the dimensions for the ark. A conservative cubit size for the ark would be 18 inches. This means the ark was at least 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Using this cubit size Mr. Woodmorappe's conclusion is that, 

“less than half of the cumulative are of the Ark's three decks need to have been occupied by the animals and their enclosures.”² 

Considering that God told Noah how big to make the ark it seems reasonable to say God knew how large the ark had to be. It is interesting that Mr. Woodmorappe's conclusion says only half of the three decks were needed for animals, that means there was a lot of room left on the ark for other things such as food, supplies, and people.

In conclusion, there would have been more than enough room on the ark for the animals, food, supplies, Noah, and his family. Even when using very conservative numbers the ark is larger than needed for the amount of animals that would have been on board. I have put a video below this article explaining some of this subject in more detail.

Jonathan Lombardi

August 8, 2008

1 J. Woodmorappe, Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study, Institute for Creation Research Santee, California, 2003.

2 Woodmorappe, Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study, 16.