Free 02 The Secret on Ararat by Tim Lahaye Page B

and small pond met. He got away, as far as he could, from the hustle and bustle of the students in the snack area. He was sipping a strawberry lemonade and thinking about the hand-size chunk of wood sitting in a locked cabinet in his lab.
    Murphy was an archaeologist, not a biologist, by training. But lecturing on the ark had made him think about the incredible diversity of God’s creation—everything that Noah had saved from the Flood. As he looked out over the lush green campus, he could see the flowering dogwood with its blossoms of four white petals. Interspersed were the maples and the tulip trees with their yellow blossoms. He could also see the deeply furrowed cinnamon-red bark of the loblolly pine.
    His interest began to focus on the azaleas surroundingthe pond. The fragrant smell of the trumpet-shaped flowers filled the air. The bees were flying in and out, getting their fill of nectar. Then he spotted a Venus flytrap. It was growing on the damp edges of the pond in the direct sunlight. Its trap was lined with sharp bristles and was open, the sensitive hairs ready for its prey to come along and touch them. Murphy did not have to wait long. A small fly landed on the outside of the plant and began to work its way toward the center. Murphy watched as it got closer and closer to the trigger hairs. Then it happened. In a flash the plant closed on its lunch.
    Murphy stroked his chin thoughtfully. Was someone trying to tell him something? That beautiful things can also be deadly, perhaps?
    Before he had time to figure it out, his solitude ended.
    “Professor Murphy! Could we ask you a few questions?”
    Turning, he saw several students from his archaeology class.
    “Sure,” he said, motioning for them to sit down. It was sometimes frustrating when he wanted to just sit and think, but he couldn’t complain if his students were interested enough in his subject to track him down with burning questions. That was what being a teacher was all about.
    “We’ve been talking about Noah’s Ark,” said a skinny young man with long, unruly hair. “Like, could it really have happened the way it’s written in the Bible? How could Noah have gotten all the animals on the ark, for instance?”
    “Good question,” Murphy said as he reached for his briefcase. He opened it and took out a folder. He looked through it and pulled out a piece of paper.
    “Here is a paper put together by Ernst Mayr. You may not be familiar with his name, but he is one of America’s leading taxonomists. He lists on this table the number of animal species. Here, take a look at it.”
    Murphy handed them the sheet, which read:
    Total Animal Species
Mammals
3,700
Birds
8,600
Reptiles
6,300
Amphibians
2,500
Fishes
20,600
Tunicates, etc.
1,325
Echinoderms
6,000
Arthropods
838,000
Mollusks
107,250
Worms, etc.
39,450
Coelenterates, etc.
5,380
Sponges
4,800
Protozoa
28,400
Total
1,072,305

    “Over a million species! No one could have built a boat big enough to hold that kind of number, could they? Especially if there were two of everything, right?” said one of the students.
    “It does seem like a lot,” admitted Murphy. “But, of course, many of those species didn’t have to be on theark to survive the flood. The fishes, tunicates, echinoderms, mollusks, coelenterates, sponges, protozoa, and many of the arthropods and worms would have been better off staying in the ocean. And many of the animals that did need to live on the ark were small, like mice, cats, birds, and sheep. If you look at the larger animals like the elephants and giraffes and hippos, they are the exception. Most animals are small, and many experts in the field do not believe that there were any more than fifty thousand land animals on the ark.”
    “That’s still a lot of animals!” said another of the students.
    “True, but there was more room on the ark than you realize. Let me see if I can help you visualize it. The average train stock car has a volume of 2,670 cubic feet. The