# How many species can fit in Noah's ark?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 23, 2003, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834 "2003-11-23T14:14:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dalchini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dalchini)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/1 "2003-11-23T14:14:54Z")
If we take the Bible’s measurements of the ark, and say we could fit all the insect species in one room and we don’t have to worry about the sub-species or breeds of domesticated animals, how many can fit?
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### Author:  [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/2 "2003-11-23T15:55:36Z")
Are we allowed to stack 'em?
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### Author:  [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/3 "2003-11-23T16:01:34Z")
Depends on whether you push “chop” or “purée”.
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/4 "2003-11-23T16:03:16Z")
You mean ignoring the fact that they will be eating each other?
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### Author:  [@InstantCrisis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InstantCrisis)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/5 "2003-11-23T16:11:40Z")
What exactly are the bible’s measurements? I remember being forced to watch a video about the arc in a Babtist sunday school, and the video addressed the critique that the arc would have collapsed under its own construction by building a scale model of it about three inches long and putting in a tank of water and vigorously shaking the tank. Bill Nye the Science guy clearly demonstrated with clay model ants that scale models to not accurately demonstrate structural integrity.
So, no matter how many animals fit in the bible’s description of the arc, they would all have drowned in the flood.
The video also addressed the billions of species of insects argument by saying that Noah only had to save a few thousand insects and they evolved into billions of different species since the flood.
It was some pretty weak propaganda to be pushing on impressionable young minds. I prefer the straight dope.
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### Author:  [@hyjyljyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyjyljyj)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/6 "2003-11-23T16:56:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Musicat \*
> \*\*You mean ignoring the fact that they will be eating each other? \*\*
Thank you. And ignoring lots of other facts, too. Like the flood was supposed to have lasted for 40 days and nights, but the lifespan of some organisms is only a few days or hours long. Also, there’s the fact of many species’ being vegetarian. For some reason, apparently no mention is made of the challenge of having all the required plant species on board, and keeping them alive inside a boat in the absence of sunlight for six weeks. Then there’s also the fact of the ark’s size required to house all the world’s species being far too large to build or launch. We’d still be building that thing today if it were to hold two of every living organism plus enough extra to feed all the carnivores.
Emmanuel Lewis sez:
**myth** \mith\ _noun_ **1a:** a usu. traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to explain a belief
**b:** PARABLE, ALLEGORY
**2b:** an unfounded or false notion
So the belief comes first, and then the unfounded notion is created to explain it. Which prompts the question: Then where did the belief come from?
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/7 "2003-11-23T17:00:27Z")
\
Right! What’s a cubit?
\
The “cubit” measurement is somewhat imprecise, and it is debateable exactly how many inches it should be considered equivalent to. Using a foot and a half, the biblical size is:
Length 300 cubits = 450 feet
Height 30 cubits = 45 feet
Width 50 cubits = 75 feet
That’s a damned big wooden boat, although not impossible. Roman triremes were believed to be over 100 feet in length, and they built bigger ships than the triremes. However, the idea that a small group of people with primitive hand tools could build a workable ship of those dimensions is sheer fantasy.
The biblical stories were handed down long before Linneaus, of course, and what ideas a nomadic tribe might have had about speciation were bound to be rather simplistic, as well as limited to the animals they were familiar with in their immediate vicinity. A vessel of that size was probably ample in their minds for “two of each kind”.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/8 "2003-11-23T17:01:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by hyjyljyj \*
> \*\*So the belief comes first, and then the unfounded notion is created to explain it. Which prompts the question: Then where did the belief come from? \*\*
The OP didn’t ask about the validity, or lack thereof, of the story of The Ark. This is GQ, not GD.
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### Author:  [@hyjyljyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyjyljyj)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/9 "2003-11-23T17:35:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \*
> \*\*The OP didn’t ask about the validity, or lack thereof, of the story of The Ark. This is GQ, not GD. \*\*
Thanks for the insight, Quod, but the OP asked, “How many species can fit in Noah’s ark?” I submit that the answer depends directly on whether there was any such thing as Noah’s ark, whether it is reasonable to suppose a boat big enough to carry more than a miniscule fraction of life’s diversity could even exist, or whether we are attempting to discuss factual, rational, scientific measurements of a fairy tale. My reply is on topic, and I stand by it.
If a question asked for medical specifics about precisely how long King Midas could survive past the point of getting his wish since everything he touched then turned to gold, which would have to include food and water, one might expect astute readers to note that the question has no sensible answer, because the tale is just a myth. Since it does not deal with points of fact or reasoned discourse, the argument could be made that it is not the answer but instead the question itself that does not belong in GQ.
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### Author:  [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/10 "2003-11-23T17:49:42Z")
I’m just wondering about this puppy:
> [@](#):
>
> The video also addressed the billions of species of insects argument by saying that Noah only had to save a few thousand insects and they **evolved** into billions of different species since the flood.
So evolution is finally making it’s way into Sunday School videos, eh?
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/11 "2003-11-23T18:00:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by hyjyljyj \*
> \*\*Thanks for the insight, Quod, but the OP asked, “How many species can fit in Noah’s ark?” I submit that the answer depends directly on whether there was any such thing as Noah’s ark… \*\*
Actually, the OP asked no such thing. For your convenience, I repost the OP in its entirety below:
> [@](#):
>
> If we take the Bible’s measurements of the ark, and say we could fit all the insect species in one room and we don’t have to worry about the sub-species or breeds of domesticated animals, how many can fit?
This is not asking how many species can fit in Noah’s Ark, but rather is asking, given the dimensions of said Ark from the Biblical account, how many could fit in such a space. Nowhere does the OP state or imply that such a thing actually existed.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/12 "2003-11-23T18:01:25Z")
Errrrr…thread title, notwistanding, of course. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/13 "2003-11-23T18:27:55Z")
> [@](#):
>
> if it were to hold two of every living organism
Actually, everyone gets this wrong, but it’s worse than that. The bible says that noah had to take seven _pairs_ of each clean animal, and two _pairs_ of each unclean animal.
So he needed 14 or 4 of every living organism, not two. Much more difficult.
Personally, I’ve always wondered how he managed to collect the kangaroos.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/14 "2003-11-23T18:39:38Z")
Are we restricting ourselves to animal species? Because most species on the planet are bacteria, and you could easily fit one or two each of about a quintillion different bacteria species on that boat. I don’t think that there actually are that many bacteria species (could be wrong), but even if not, that still leaves us room to start cramming in the protists, the smaller fungi, and the arthropods (though I suspect that arthropod species would be more than enough to fill the boat).
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### Author:  [@gypsymoth3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gypsymoth3)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/15 "2003-11-23T18:47:58Z")
my eighth grade teacher made an interesting suggestion about this. some (or lots) of these animals could’ve been eggs. (especially if you assume dinosaurs were on the ark too.)
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/16 "2003-11-23T21:53:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by gypsymoth3 \*
> \*\*my eighth grade teacher made an interesting suggestion about this. some (or lots) of these animals could’ve been eggs. (especially if you assume dinosaurs were on the ark too.) \*\*
That sounds like a great solution to the space problem until you remember that[ul][li]Eggs are a favorite food of many animals[_]Eggs need incubation and care or they won’t hatch[_]Hatched eggs for many species require like-species parents to feed and rear them, or they die[_]Collecting eggs would be harder than just collecting the animals, since you would have to wait until they are laid and large animals don’t give them up easily[_]Etc.[/ul]I hope your eighth grade teacher had more sense than to suggest this as a serious solution to an impossible event.[/li]
Maybe Noah just collected DNA. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/17 "2003-11-23T23:34:29Z")
Saith **Chronos** :
> [@](#):
>
> that still leaves us room to start cramming in the protists, the smaller fungi, and the arthropods (though I suspect that arthropod species would be more than enough to fill the boat).
I think so. There are over one million known species of arthropods, and it is claimed that the true number of species is more likely in the tens of millions.
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### Author:  [@substatique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/substatique)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/18 "2003-11-24T03:58:57Z")
Protists and arthropods may present a seperate problem.
God commanded Noah to take BHMH (_bahemah_), which means “beasts” or even “livestock.” One could argue that rats and crocodiles were included, but I suspect God figured the protists and arthropods could fend for themselves by making spores or something. :dubious:
Noah also took aboard seven pairs of “fowls of the air.”
Clean and unclean, of course, refers to whether or not you can eat them. Thus I doubt all seven pairs of clean beasts were intended to survive the trip. According to the below, they didn’t even survive the pre-departure party.
When we get to the boarding scene, “two and two” (not two _by_ two) of every RMS (_ramas_) got on the ark (Gen 7:8). Ramas basically means “things that move.” Later on we get the suggestion that on board the ark were two and two of “all flesh” in which there was the “breath of life” (Gen. 7:15). This suggests either that God’s commands weren’t followed, that Noah read between the lines, or that some passengers weren’t invited.
**yabob** ’s cubit conversions give us 1518750 cubic feet. We could fit over 63000 individuals (about 16000 quartets) whose size was 4’x3’x2’ (24 cubic ft). I guess that’s a largish dog, and that assumes they’re packed like sardines. I hardly presume that it’s an “average animal size.” Considering the unfeasability of finding an “average animal size,” not to mention how much running room each one needs, calculating any further seems far sillier than calculating angels on pinheads.
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### Author:  [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2003, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/19 "2003-11-24T05:30:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by substatique \*
> **When we get to the boarding scene, “two and two” (not two _by_ two) of every RMS (_ramas_) got on the ark (Gen 7:8). Ramas basically means “things that move.” Later on we get the suggestion that on board the ark were two and two of “all flesh” in which there was the “breath of life” (Gen. 7:15). This suggests either that God’s commands weren’t followed, that Noah read between the lines, or that some passengers weren’t invited.**
There is a huge consensus among mainline scripture scholars that not only is Noah’s ark a pre-historical myth [duh], but that it is a fusion of two traditions of the same story. In one version, there were two of each creature, in the other, there were two or seven pairs of each creature (depending on its ritual purity status). And so, the story we have reports both contradictory numbers as so:
> [@](#):
>
> [Gen 6:17-21](http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/genesis/genesis6.htm#v17) I, on my part, am about to bring the flood (waters) on the earth, to destroy everywhere all creatures in which there is the breath of life; everything on earth shall perish. But with you I will establish my covenant; you and your sons, your wife and your sons’ wives, shall go into the ark. **Of all other living creatures you shall bring two into the ark, one male and one female,** that you may keep them alive with you. **Of all kinds of birds, of all kinds of beasts, and of all kinds of creeping things, two of each shall come into the ark with you,** to stay alive. Moreover, you are to provide yourself with all the food that is to be eaten, and store it away, that it may serve as provisions for you and for them." This Noah did; he carried out all the commands that God gave him.
> [@](#):
>
> [Gen 7:1-10](http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/genesis/genesis7.htm#v1) Then the LORD said to Noah: “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone in this age have I found to be truly just. **Of every clean animal, take with you seven pairs, a male and its mate; and of the unclean animals, one pair, a male and its mate; likewise, of every clean bird of the air, seven pairs, a male and a female, and of all the unclean birds, one pair, a male and a female.** Thus you will keep their issue alive over all the earth. Seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and so I will wipe out from the surface of the earth every moving creature that I have made.” Noah did just as the LORD had commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the flood waters came upon the earth. Together with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, Noah went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. **Of the clean animals and the unclean, of the birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, (two by two) male and female entered the ark with Noah,** just as the LORD had commanded him. As soon as the seven days were over, the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
For a good scholarly review of the whole flood passage, check out:
[Plymouth Church online scripture study](http://www.firstplymouth.org/devotional/e-study_genesis/e-study_genesis_archives.html) click on the flood links.
Peace.
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### Author:  [@Flash-57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flash-57)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2003, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-species-can-fit-in-noahs-ark/214834/20 "2003-11-24T05:47:45Z")
\> Personally, I’ve always wondered how he managed to collect
\> the kangaroos.
And Armadillos.
Well, my thoughts about the Ark is that, one day it started raining. It rained a lot. Noah had been building a boat in the back yard and it was nearly finished. As the flood waters rose, he gathered up his own family, and as many of his family’s farm animals as he could and retreated to the relative safety of the boat. You know, just in case.
Well, that turned out to be a good idea and the legend grew and grew and grew.
Obviously he didn’t collect Armadillos, insects, fish, Kangaroos, and Penguins, as the Bible implies.
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