Were Dinosaurs On The Ark?

Setting Aside the Bathtub Ark

So far in this series, we’ve seen that:

• God created dinosaurs during creation week (Genesis 1:20–31).
• They were originally good, peaceful plant eaters in a world without death.
• Everything changed after the Fall, when sin fractured God’s perfect creation.

With that foundation laid, we now arrive at one of the most common and most misunderstood questions Christians ask when they begin thinking biblically about dinosaurs:

Were dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark?
And if so…

• How in the world did they fit?
• Weren’t they too big?
• How many “kinds” were there?

These are excellent questions—and the Bible gives us everything we need to answer them. But before we walk through Scripture and apply clear, creation-based reasoning, we need to set one thing aside:

the cute, cartoon bathtub-style Ark—with Noah smiling, giraffes’ heads sticking out, and a boat barely big enough for a backyard pool.

That picture isn’t just inaccurate; it keeps people from taking Genesis seriously.

If we picture the Ark inaccurately, we will misunderstand the entire account—including how dinosaurs fit. If we’re going to understand dinosaurs and the Ark, we must replace the children’s-book image with the massive, seaworthy vessel described in the Bible.

With that corrected picture in mind, let’s explore what Scripture actually teaches.

1. According to the Bible, Dinosaurs Had to Be on the Ark

Genesis 6:19–20 records God’s command to Noah:

“You are to bring into the Ark two of every kind of animal, male and female, to keep them alive with you.”

Genesis 7:8–9 restates the same idea, mentioning:

• land animals,
• flying creatures,
• and everything that “creeps on the ground.”

If dinosaurs were land animals—and Scripture places them clearly in that category—then Noah was commanded to bring them. There is no biblical category of “skip the giant ones” or “exclude anything that will go extinct later.”

God said:

“two of every kind… to keep them alive”

That includes dinosaurs.

The next question is where most confusion begins:

How many kinds are we talking about?

2. Noah Took “Kinds,” Not “Species”—A Major Difference

A common misunderstanding is that Noah needed to take:

• 1,000 dinosaur species,
• plus every variation,
• plus every size and body type.

But the Bible never uses the word “species.” It uses the word “kind” (Hebrew: min).

According to research by Answers in Genesis, a biblical “kind” roughly corresponds to the family level of modern classification, not to individual species.¹

Examples:

• Dog kind → wolves, coyotes, dingoes, foxes, domestic dogs
• Cat kind → lions, tigers, cheetahs, housecats
• Horse kind → horses, donkeys, zebras

Noah did not take dozens or hundreds of variations. He took representative pairs from each created kind.

So how many kinds of dinosaurs were there?

Researchers at the Ark Encounter and AiG estimate:

• Over 1,000 named dinosaur species exist,
• but many are duplicates (juveniles, males/females, variation within one kind),
• leaving likely 50–60 true dinosaur kinds.²

That’s it.

Noah didn’t need 800 dinosaurs.

He needed around 100 total dinosaurs (two juveniles from each kind).

Now we can address the big question on everyone’s mind.

3. How Could Dinosaurs Fit? Weren’t They Too Big?

Hollywood has trained us to imagine dinosaurs as nothing but:

• massive,
• towering,
• skyscraper-sized,
• earth-shaking.

But this is not reality.

Truth: Most dinosaurs were small.

The average dinosaur was about the size of:

• a large dog, or
• a sheep.

Yes, some dinosaurs grew massive—but those were the exception, not the rule.

AiG researchers offer three critical answers to how dinosaurs fit on the Ark:

(1) Noah likely took juvenile dinosaurs

This is the simplest and most logical explanation because juveniles:

• are significantly smaller,
• eat less,
• produce less waste,
• are easier to transport,
• live longer after the Flood,
• and still represent their kind fully.

Even the biggest sauropods began life small—a newly hatched sauropod was smaller than a Labrador retriever.³

Taking young representatives solves the size issue immediately.

(2) The Ark was enormous—far larger than most people realize

Using the biblical measurements (Genesis 6:15), the Ark was approximately:

• 510 feet long
• 85 feet wide
• 51 feet tall
• with around 1.5 million cubic feet in volume

This is not a bathtub boat. It is a massive, barge-like vessel built for stability and capacity.

According to AiG’s calculations:

• about 1,300–1,400 total animal kinds existed,
• requiring roughly 6,700 animals on the Ark,⁴
• still leaving room for thousands more.

Dinosaur juveniles—approximately 100 animals total—would occupy only a small percentage of space.

(3) Dinosaurs fit the same way elephants, hippos, and rhinos fit

We don’t imagine:

• elephants,
• rhinos,
• hippos,
• camels,
• bison,

as “too big” for the Ark, though they are massive animals today.

Yet their younger forms are:

• manageable,
• transportable,
• smaller,
• easier to care for.

Dinosaurs were no different.

Taking young representatives from each kind made everything reasonable and doable.

4. Why Take Dinosaurs on the Ark at All?

Some may wonder:

If dinosaurs eventually went extinct, why bring them?

Because God’s command was clear:

“Bring a pair of every kind of animal…”
— Genesis 6:19

Extinction after the Flood does not mean dinosaurs were unnecessary passengers.

God’s purpose for each creature was—and is—His own.

Noah was not commanded to preserve only animals that would survive in the long run.
He was commanded to be faithful.

And he was.

So—Were Dinosaurs on the Ark?

Yes.

Dinosaurs were:

• ✔ land animals created on Day 6,
• ✔ included in the “every kind” command,
• ✔ represented by kinds, not species,
• ✔ almost certainly taken as juveniles,
• ✔ easily accommodated within the Ark’s massive capacity,
• ✔ consistent with AiG and ICR creation research.

There is nothing in Scripture—or science—that prevents dinosaurs from being aboard the Ark.

The problem isn’t the Bible. The problem is our assumptions.

When we let Scripture speak for itself, the picture becomes clear:

• Dinosaurs lived with humans.
• Dinosaurs boarded the Ark.
• And dinosaurs stepped off the Ark after the Flood.

Where We Are Going Next

If dinosaurs were on the Ark and survived the Flood, then what happened next?

Where did they go?
Why did they eventually disappear?
Is there post-Flood evidence for humans and dinosaurs living at the same time?

In Post 4, we explore:

“What Happened to Dinosaurs After the Flood?”

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Footnotes

1. See Answers in Genesis, Ark Encounter research on “created kinds” and baraminology.
2. Ark Encounter research summaries often estimate around 50–60 dinosaur kinds based on fossil variation and classification overlap.
3. Creationist paleontologists frequently note that even the largest sauropods hatched from eggs roughly football-sized, making juveniles quite small.
4. Animal number calculations are based on Ark Encounter/AiG modeling of known and estimated kinds, size averages, and Ark dimensions from Genesis 6:15.