How Could Noah Look After Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark?

In Part 1, we showed the logically derived biblical reasons for believing that dinosaurs were in fact onboard Noah’s ark. In Part 2, we showed fossil evidence of several kinds of “modern” creatures that would have been on the ark that have also been found in “dinosaur era” rock—showing there’s no reason not to believe these creatures and dinosaurs lived alongside one another.

In Part 3, we demonstrated why the question “Why haven’t dinosaur and human fossils ever been found together?” is actually a stronger argument against the evolutionary timeline than against the biblical narrative when thought through carefully.

And in this part, we will unpack several objections of a logistical nature that often come up when discussing the idea of dinosaurs onboard Noah’s ark, such as how could they realistically have fit on board, how could they have possibly gotten along with the other creatures, and how on earth (or sea) could Noah and his family have fed them?

Jurassic Ark?

A common trope you’ll often see or hear when discussing dinosaurs onboard the ark is some type of allusion to them running around terrorizing Noah’s family and all of the other animals onboard à la the popular Jurassic Park/World movie series.

But let’s face it, these movies were created to produce a dramatic thrill-ride experience, so they purposefully portrayed these animals as huge, terrifying killing machines, despite many suspected scientific inaccuracies.

For example, the velociraptors were not based on real velociraptor fossils (which are the size of a turkey) but rather on a deinonychus that was about the size of a human. And newer research points away from the idea that velociraptors were coordinated pack hunters as they were distinctly portrayed, which pretty well blows holes in the entire plotline of most of the Jurassic Park/World movies.1

And although T. rex was once estimated to be able to run up to 45 mph and was shown sprinting after a Jeep in the first movie, recent studies have downgraded them to about half that, with around a maximum speed of 20 mph.2

Over the years, I’ve seen T. rex described in a wide variety of scientific studies as supposedly having had starkly different behaviors. One paper would describe them as a slow-moving, solitary scavenger and then another as pack-hunting, apex predators! Some depicted them as caring moms and dads, and the next indicated they were heartless cannibals.

The fact is, we don’t know a lot of these details for sure. But basing your opinion about the Bible on CGI-generated dinosaurs in Hollywood movies is hardly thinking it through carefully. And there’s good reasons to disregard the notion that the inclusion of dinosaurs would have made Noah’s transport more like a “Jurassic Ark,” than the life-preserving craft it was designed to be.

But They Were So Big!

Regardless of behavior, the sheer size of some of these creatures we’ve found in the fossil record makes the idea of dinosaurs on Noah’s ark seem to be a stretch—until you consider the purpose for all of the animals to be there. God sent the animals he chose to go aboard to Noah, and their purpose was to survive and reproduce after the flood was over.

So obviously, God wouldn’t have sent “grandma and grandpa” dinosaurs, he would have sent the young teenagers, so to speak—more juvenile-age and -size creatures that would be healthy and have more time to procreate.

And “according to the most recent models of dinosaur maturation, even the largest sauropod dinosaurs were no more than several hundred kilograms in weight by the time they were just over a year old, which could have corresponded to their time of release from the ark.”3

“According to Scripture, Noah’s ark was a safe haven for representatives of all the kinds of air-breathing land animals and birds that God created. While it is possible that God made miraculous provisions for the daily care of these animals, it’s not necessary to appeal . . .  to miracles”4 to explain their housing or care.

Who Was Onboard?

Despite critics commonly speculating the need for millions of animals onboard the ark, the Bible specifies the animal “cargo was limited to land-dwelling, air-breathing vertebrate animals—corresponding to modern birds, mammals, and reptiles [and possibly insects], as well as their extinct counterparts.”5

So not every species or current variety of animal was needed on the ark, as each separately created kind (the word min in Hebrew) was a much broader category than the modern classification term species.

As National Geographic stated in an article about domestic dogs,

The term “domestic dog” refers to any of several hundred breeds of dog in the world today. While these animals vary drastically in appearance, every dog—from the Chihuahua to the Great Dane—is a member of the same species, Canis familiaris.6

However, all modern dog breeds can be traced back to wolves, which means wolves were likely much closer to the originally created dog kind that God would have sent to Noah, and all current variations of what we call canines such as foxes, dingoes, coyotes, etc., have descended from the original pair that left the ark after the flood and spread out around the world.

Just like if you were to compare the bones of a Great Dane with those of a wolf and with a Chihuahua skeleton or compare a bulldog’s remains with a fox’s—you’d notice a large range of features and differences in their anatomy. Yet they are all the same kind of creature: the dog kind.

Similarly, although scientists often declare they have found a new dinosaur type, most often all they find is some variation of the approximately 80 different kinds we’ve already found. Ceratopsians, for example, come in all different shapes and sizes, but they share certain characteristics, such as a beak-like mouth and a frill. Despite their differences, they were all the same kind of dinosaur.

Current baraminological research (the study of the created kinds) suggests that the created kind most closely corresponds to the family level in current taxonomy. Recent studies estimate the total number of living and extinct kinds of land animals and flying creatures to be about 1,500.

So even with a “worst-case” scenario approach to calculating the total number of animals needed on the ark, this would mean that Noah cared for approximately 7,000 animals—and that would include the dinosaurs.

“According to the Bible, the ark had three decks (floors). It is not difficult to show that there was plenty of room for 16,000 [actually 7,000] animals, assuming they required approximately the same floor space as animals in typical farm enclosures and laboratories today.”7

Remember, “the vast majority of the creatures (birds, reptiles, and mammals) are small. The largest animals [like elephants, sauropods, rhinos, and tyrannosaurs] were probably only a few hundred pounds of body weight”8 apiece because, as discussed, even the largest dinosaurs were relatively small when only a few years old.

What Did the Dinosaurs Eat?

“Anti-Bible critics have compared the challenges of caring for the animals on Noah’s ark with that of modern zoos,”9 but this isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison whatsoever. There’s a big difference “between the long-term care required for animals kept in zoos and the temporary, emergency care required on the ark.”10

This was an extreme, one-time, struggle-for-existence event, so animals’ cozy comfort and appearance weren’t essential. “Survival was the primary goal.”11

The common assumption that what we’d term carnivorous dinosaurs (and other animals) would have had to eat meat while onboard is not a given. For example, crocodiles and alligators today are thought of as meat-eating predators, and yet, unknown to most people, they commonly eat large amounts of fruit. As one scientific study concluded,

While the authors say some of the fruit ingestion may have been incidental to prey capture, evidence shows that other fruit is consumed deliberately and in large quantities.12

And an NBC article reporting on a study in the Journal of Zoology stated,

Scientists investigated 18 species of crocodilian, ranging from the American alligator to the fearsome Nile crocodile, and found evidence that 13 of those species devoured fruit of some kind, including a variety of berries, legumes, nuts and grains.13

Because early research suggested crocodilians were unable to digest sugars and other plant-based nutrients, scientists previously believed plant materials found in crocodiles or alligators were just incidental, and any fruit was likely just swallowed along with prey. As one researcher quoted by the NBC article said, “Everyone just rejected the notion that crocodilians eat fruit because everyone supposed they only ate meat.”

This just goes to show that what people, even scientists, assume to be true often isn’t. It also shows that the common objections heard against believing Noah’s ark as real history—often accompanied by a smirky grin and dismissive eye roll—should be carefully analyzed before simply accepting or discarding them.

Contrary Carnivores

There have been many modern examples of animals normally considered to be carnivores that refused to eat meat, such as a lion known as Little Tyke.14 She refused to eat meat and was fed solely a diet of various grains, milk, and eggs.

“Additionally during times of war or natural disaster when meat was unobtainable, zoos and wildlife parks have utilized various meat substitutes15 like nuts, peanut butter, coconuts, beans, soy, and other legumes as their protein-source feed for the animals.”16

So “even if carnivory was prevalent in the late pre-flood world [as is demonstrated by the fossil record], it is still possible the animals that God sent didn’t eat meat or were omnivores that could have survived for one year without meat.”17

After all, Genesis 1:29–30 records that all creatures were originally designed to eat plants in the beginning before the creation was corrupted. Perhaps examples like Little Tyke are not only a reminder of what the original, perfect, “very good” creation was like, but also what it will be again someday.

“Dinosaurs could have eaten basically the same foods as the other animals. The young representatives of the large sauropods could have eaten compressed hay, other dried plant material, seeds and grains, and the like. Carnivorous dinosaurs . . .  could have eaten dried meat, reconstituted dried meat, or slaughtered animals. Giant tortoises would have been ideal to use as food in this regard. They were large and needed little food to be maintained themselves.”18

In a world full of fast-food restaurants and superstores, we might think that idea strange today; however, seafarers in the 1600s and 1700s frequently brought giant tortoises on their ships as a fresh meat source because they are very hardy, sometimes staying alive for over a year without food themselves.

“Another factor that may have reduced food consumption for both vegetarian and carnivorous dinosaurs is that they went into various states of hibernation/brumation or torpor. Many reptiles today begin to eat less, reduce their metabolic rate drastically, and then ‘sleep’ for long periods of time when the weather gets a little cooler, virtually eating nothing and waking up only for brief periods to drink before reentering brumation.”19

“Often the best conditions for this state are humidity, temperatures between 50° and 68° F, and low-light conditions. The outside weather at the time of the flood (rainy and thus likely cool) combined with the lower-light interior compartments of the ark would make ideal hibernation/brumation conditions on the ark. If any of the dinosaurs and other reptiles and amphibians went into brumation, then food requirements would have been severely reduced.”20

However, because of (1) the relatively few kinds of animals (which included dinosaurs) needed onboard, (2) the fact that juveniles, which require far less food, would likely be the ideal candidates onboard, and (3) the fact that there was more than enough room for a wide variety of food stores onboard, hibernation isn’t a requirement for explaining these common objections.

However, there are even more questions about the feasibility of Noah’s ark that are often asked—from water and air requirements to “How did Noah do away with dinosaur ‘doo-doo?’” So stay tuned for Part 5, where we’ll answer several more concerns surrounding this question of how Noah could care for dinosaurs on the ark.