The bible says it was made of wood, and describes a general design of a shed 450 feet long and 45 feet high. No wooden raft could have a shed that size on it, as I've already explained.
The Mesopotamians sailed to India is just such design of rafts.
Here is a picture of how Mesopotamian ocean-going craft are thought to have looked. Note that it is built of reeds, not wood as God instructed. Note that the cubic dimension of its deck-construction is approximately 500CuFt, 0.05% of the claimed capacity of the ark. Let me know when you've figured out how to build a shed of the Ark's dimensions on a wooden raft.
Which is why God had Noah cover it in pitch within and without (Gen. 6.14), so it would be waterproof and hold in air for bouancy and storage space.
A craft which holds in air for boayancy and storage space is called, ummm, oh yes, a boat. One the size of the ark that does that is called a ship. I'm glad we're reaching agreement on that.
There are only a few thousand species of birds in total. Accomodation of all wouldn't be a problem if it were truly needed. However, waterfowl such as Storm Petrel's, Albatrosses, seaducks, etc. could probably survive quite a while at sea, and there would certainly be enough debris floating around to land on if needed. The time with no land about was between 5 and 8 months (the Ark grounded in 5 months according to Gen. 8.4, and mountains were clearly visible after 7 1/2 months by Gen. 8.5)
I'll allow you a few birds that weren't on the ark, ocean dwellers, though I think the idea of most species flying for several months and occasionally landing on "debris" is risible, and contrary to God's instructions to take aboard "7:3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth." I guess you think that maybe Noah disobeyed God for practical reasons.
Its impossible to know if there was such a distinction then. Fish certainly seem adaptble in some regards - e.g. the Lake Sharks of Nicaragua.
What do you mean "if there was such a distinction then"? You are the guys who don't believe in evolution, remember. The diversity of freshwater fish is enormous, and most won't tolerate salinity for even a day. You cannot wriggle out of this one unless you are prepared to accept far greater evolution than (to pluck an example at random) the difference between gorillas and humans.
Only insects which must have air to survive needed to be saved.
That'll just be millions of species of insect then.
How many chests full of grubs would you need to feed all the worm and insect eating birds (if there were such then)? Not that many.
A huge number of many different varieties appropriate for the different species, and they all have to not spoil for a year in 100% humidity and an utterly fetid atmosphere.
The Mesopotamians were able to use this general concept to sail to India. One wonders at how they did it since you say it is impossible.
You are making me laugh again. Unless you can show me an ocean-going Mesopotamian boat of 20,000 times greater capacity than any I know of. Small boat designs don't scale because the stresses on a boat go up according to a power of its length while the strength of the materials remains constant.
Reeds would make up the hull of the craft, wood the actual space for living quarters on top. There is clearly a wood structure on top of the reeds in your picture.
What do you mean "if there was such a distinction then"? You are the guys who don't believe in evolution, remember. The diversity of freshwater fish is enormous, and most won't tolerate salinity for even a day.
Evolution is the transmorgification of one species into another new one. Natural adaptability within species when confronted with new environments is clearly shown within our own, where all the different races of man, adapted as they are to their environment and diet ultimately still derive from one man and one woman, and in such famous examples as the Pepper Moth (do I have that name right?).
Small boat designs don't scale because the stresses on a boat go up according to a power of its length while the strength of the materials remains constant.
With this dicta, one must wonder if you ever studied fluid mechanics, and the manner of modeling large structures with scale models to test strength. Because that is how its done. Its not that you scale up a small boat. Its that the concepts of the large boat may be tested in an appropriately scaled small one, and new small ones can be derived from the principals used to make the large one.
