Insects survived on floating vegetation mats (Talk.Origins)

Claim CH511:


 * Insects and other invertebrates were not taken aboard the ark during Noah's flood. They survived on vegetation mats.

Source:
 * Woodmorappe, John, 1996. Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study, ICR, Santee, CA, p. 3.
 * Whitcomb, John C. Jr. and Henry M. Morris, 1961. The Genesis Flood. Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., p. 69.

CreationWiki response:

Talk.Origins is confusing the original insect kinds for post-flood varieties (species) of those kinds. Most of the specialization they talk of probably came about as a result of insects adapting to the post-Flood world. Even if much of this specialization existed before the flood, based on the creation model those insects living today would be degenerated forms of those living at the time of the flood. They would have been healthier and probably less sensitive to changes in their environment than their modern descendants. Given this, it is not unreasonable that those insects could have survived on vegetation mats, even if their modern descendants can't.

Talk.Origins clearly missed the qualifying statement in Genesis 7:22. It  saying, All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. Insects absorb oxygen through abdominal membranes and do not have nostrils, nor can they be said to breathe air in normal usage of the term. So insects don't meet the Bible's description.


 * Morris, J. D., 1992. How Could All the Animals Get On Board Noah's Ark? Acts & Facts 21(3).

It is correct there is no biblical reference to anything living on vegetation mats, but neither is there any reference to the survival of aquatic animals. The Biblical account deals with those animals that needed to be on the ark, not those that did not. The Bible is silent on those animals that could survive outside the Ark.

WRONG! Talk.Origins is missing Genesis 7:22's qualifying statement, that seems to eliminate insects.

Actually, putting insects on mats would help with the regrowth of plants worldwide after the Flood. So not worrying about insects is not the only reason for placing them on mats.


 * Morris, J. D., 1992. How Could All the Animals Get On Board Noah's Ark? Acts & Facts 21(3).