[TomB]

We assumed bugs and the really little stuff could live on floating debris. Subtracting out them and aquatic life forms cuts out over 90% of animal life right there.

Unfortunately Genesis 7 specifically states that everything outside the Ark perished:

" And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. "

[Ahban]

Your own text says everything that "was upon the face of the ground" was destroyed. Does that include mosquitoes that breed in water? Flies that breed in floating corpses? Beetles burrowed in the treetops?

Are you saying that the writer meant to imply that each and every living thing, even the dolpins, penguins, ducks, storks, turtles, crocodiles, and otters were either on the ark or wiped out? Would a flood, even a global flood that displaced the seas onto the land, wipe out those critters?

I don't mind defending what the text says, but that is not what it says. The destruction was limited to those things which dwelled "upon the face of the ground", including birds that were non-aquatic (fowl of the heaven verses those of the waters).