Ark Encounter During Construction
You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. (Genesis 7:2-3 NKJV)
Today in Williamstown, Kentucky, they had the Grand Opening of the Ark Encounter. The building of the Ark Encounter was mentioned in Birds of the Bible – Foundation – The Ark. Now, it is open and we are looking forward to the opportunity to go see this modern day, full sized Ark. It’s about 900 miles from where we live, but it is definitely on my “bucket list.”
What I want to do, in a series of articles, is to introduce the Avian Kinds, Bird kinds, that are thought to be on board. An article, An Initial Estimate of Avian Ark Kinds, appeared on Nov. 27, 2013. It was written by Dr. Jean Lightner. Here is her abstract from that article.
Creationists recognize that animals were created according to their kinds, but there has been no comprehensive list of what those kinds are. As part of the Answers in Genesis Ark Encounter project, research was initiated in an attempt to more clearly identify and enumerate vertebrate kinds that were present on the Ark. In this paper, using methods previously described, 196 putative bird kinds are identified. Due to the limited information available and the fact that avian taxonomic classifications shift, this should be considered only a rough estimate.
I bolded the “196 putative bird kinds are identified” because that is what these articles are going to be about. According to I. O. C., the naming list that this site uses, there are 239 Families. On the Birds of the World family page, you will see this:
Lee’s Birds of the World, based on the IOC World Bird List 6.2 contains 10,637 extant species (and 154 extinct species) classified in 40 Orders, 239 Families (plus 2 Incertae Sedis) and 2289 Genera and 20,490 Subspecies.
If my math is correct, 239 minus 196, equals 43. Okay, where did those 43 extra families come from? That is what this series is going to try to find out. (Not Today)
Ark Encounter – First Look, By TV station
STAY TUNED!!
*
Birds of the Bible – Foundation – The Ark
An Initial Estimate of Avian Ark Kinds
Grand Opening of the Ark Encounter
*
Lee's Birdwatching Adventures Plus 
Thanks, Lee, for introducing us to this fascinating study of avian diversity, by Dr. Jean Lightner, creationist veterinarian. By the way, for philological/grammatical reasons I won’t burden you with, I believe the Hebrew wording of Genesis 7:2-3 is referring to 7 pairs of each bird kind, not 7 birds total of each bird kind. And notice how God demonstrates His special regard for birds — they were treated differently from other animal categories, because each of the bird-kinds went aboard the Ark by “sevens” regardless of whether they were “clean” or “unclean” birds.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Dr. Jim. Yes, I am aware that there were 7 pairs. Each with there male and female. Also, I have another point I will be making about those 7 pairs. Stay tuned!
LikeLike