:’) Thanks bhf. There are other flood stories all over the world, and other than “a one-time event happened, lots of water, a lot of people died”, they don’t have the same details. And since the tales from all over the world and differ, it means there wasn’t a single surviving family in just one place.
Sedentary species like the sloth and koala (and the panda, which eats bamboo) were unknown in other parts of the world, and more to the point, would be found right by Noah’s original landfall. But they aren’t found in the same small part of the world.
The rabbinical sources note that there were other craft during the Deluge, and that the survivors of the Deluge could not light fires, which is an odd detail. Dr V attributed this to the arrival of ionized hydrogen from space, which combined on the way down with Earth’s atmospheric oxygen to produce the waters of the Deluge itself and for the time being at least greatly reduce the oxygen content of the atmosphere.
It is interesting to note that the first couple of generations after the flood are the ONLY generations in human history where the elders out lived their grandchildren and even great grandchildren.
Since they were building from scratch, this made a tremendous difference in historical culture.
But yet wasn't one of the (if not THE) first things that Noad did after the flood was to offer a burnt offering?
Any oxygen reduction that would prevent the lighting of fires would also prevent Noah from living.