TOPICAL NOTE 3C: WORLD ANIMAL MIGRATION

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Today’s land animals and creatures, and birds, descended from those kept in Noah's ark.  God caused mating pairs of every kind of land animal and creature- including insects and snails, and bird to come to Noah’s Ark (Genesis 6:19-20). They were all taken in by Noah’s family to survive during the one-year Flood.  They were released afterward to migrate worldwide and fill the earth.  Marine mammals and reptiles including whales, porpoises, sea turtles, and the ancient marine reptiles were not on the ark. And apparently, sea worthy amphibious animals including seals, walruses, sea otters, and penguins were also left to care for themselves in the ocean during the Flood. Although Noah and his family remained in ark for one year and 10 days (internet), water covered the earth for less than a year and the rain lasted for only 40 days and nights (Genesis 7:12). There was much floating vegetation debris to support them, although many perished. God would not have led vicious carnivorous land animals including therapod dinosaurs such as T. rex to migrate to the ark because He was as grieved by their violent behavior as much as the evil humans’ the Flood was intended to destroy (Genesis 6:7). However, ancient North American petroglyphs and medieval European church art depict various sauropods, and an ancient Asian temple motif clearly depicts a stegosaurus.  This was evidence that post-Flood humans knew what these herbivorous dinosaurs looked like so they must have been included on Noah’s ark but more recently they became extinct likely from human predation.

Initially there were seven pairs of each clean animal kind and bird kind, and one pair of each of the unclean kinds on the ark (Genesis 7:2-3). The “clean” kinds were certain of the less violent kinds that had strictly herbivorous (plant, nectar, seed eating) diets that God originally intended (Genesis 1:30). God must have explained how to identify each to Noah. And details were described to the Hebrews in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 much later during their Exodus from Egypt for their dietary and sacrificial laws, respectively.  Starting with more of the clean herbivorous kinds than unclean ones right after the Flood assured food for the unclean carnivorous ones.  Noah sacrificed some of the clean animals and birds right after the Flood as an offering that pleased God for preserving them all through the flood year (Genesis 8:20-21). When Noah’s family released these young birds, reptiles, mammals, and creatures after the Flood they began to reproduce and started their global migration from Ararat to fill the earth. This was historically 3200BCE according to Josephus’s biblical chronology. Because God led the animals to migrate to Noah’s Ark before the Flood (Genesis 6:20), He also would have led the various animal kinds to migrate in the directions to where He planned they should live after the Flood.  

Then Noah’s sons’ families migrated away from the ark in Ararat as a single group and headed southeastward between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia as they increased in numbers. (According to Josephus Noah and his wife remained near Ararat.) The crowd stopped when they reached the fertile southern plain of Shinar where all humanity stayed until God dispersed them worldwide (Genesis 11:1-9}. So the animals got a head start on the humans in worldwide migration, and wherever the humans went they found game animals for food. 

When the land animals and birds migrated, some stayed where they found a suitable habitat and others continued to migrate due to overcrowding and to avoid predation by carnivorous animals and humans (Genesis 9:2-3). The humans and animal and birds required many generations to reach their final worldwide destinations. According to creation chronology the earth’s single 1000 year ice age began soon after the Flood and peaked 500 years later (Topical note 4, Ice age) and then Earth’s climate slowly warmed.  The cold and ice impeded migration at high latitudes.  The resulting sea level changed as the ice sheets froze and melted. This caused land bridges between the new continents that formed from the breakup of Pangea (Topical note 4, Plate tectonics) to rise and sink that both animals and humans could temporarily cross. However, the humans were also able to build boats to cross moderate water barriers. The animals and birds all basically ended up inhabiting global ecosystems they were suited for, and those that didn’t find a suitable place died out. So the various kinds each populated only certain world regions, as is seen today.

Why do nearly all of the world’s marsupial mammal species that include kangaroos today live in Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania with almost no placental mammals?

Conventional scientists who deny Noah’s Flood don’t agree about this (internet source).  The following explanation is based on the biblical worldwide animal migration after the historical global Flood. Biological taxonomy classifies mammals (that have fur coats and feed their young with milk) into two major groups: Placental mammals develop as embryos inside of their mothers and connect to their mother’s body with an attachment called a “placenta” that transfers nutrients from her to the developing baby.  After birth the placenta detaches and baby animals quickly mature to move about by themselves, and for a time while they are nourished by their mother’s milk. Placental mammals care for their young after birth and spend time training them to live in their environment before they can live independently, which greatly delayed their worldwide migration. Marsupial mammals are born tiny and immature and move to the “marsupium” or pouch on their mother’s belly. The baby is fed with milk from a nipple inside the pouch and the young continue to develop there. While marsupials mature the young look out and watch and learn everything as they ride in their mother’s pouch until they are ready live on their own, which sped their worldwide migration. A tiny third mammal group, the monotremes lay eggs instead of bearing live young. They live only in Australia and the nearby islands of Tasmania and New Guinea that is also home to nearly all of the world's marsupials.

Many of the same ecological niches may fit both placental and marsupial mammals. However, placental mammals are more alert and vigorous than their marsupial counterparts and they would generally out-compete with them for food and other resources if they lived together.  Indeed, the slow-moving marsupial opossums are very common road killed wild animals in U.S urban areas. God originally created both kinds of mammals. Both groups were suited for the lush, tropical pre-Flood environment on the ancient single super-continent of Pangea where there was ample food and habitat for all. However, the colder, more rigorous climate on several smaller continents after the Flood made life more competitive.

After the Flood, marsupial land mammals sensed that placental mammals were a threat so marsupials fled into the unoccupied land ahead of them when migrating placentals first arrived in their ecosystems. Marsupials carried their young in pouches as they matured when they migrated, while placentals needed to wait for their young to mature.  Both of these issues caused marsupial mammals to stay on the leading edge of worldwide animal migration from Noah’s ark. Because God led the animals and birds to migrate to Noah’s Ark before the Flood, He would have also led them to migrate in the directions they should go after the Flood. So, the marsupial mammals as a group migrated quickly southeasterly from Ararat (above) before the sea level rose near the end of the Ice Age. During the recent Ice Age in northern latitudes, worldwide sea level was 400 feet lower than today (internet). Marsupials crossed the dry ice-age land bridge from southern Asia{43} to New Guinea, then continued south to Australia and Tasmania where God had planned they should live.  The slower migrating placentals arrived at the land’s end south of what is today Indo-China after the land bridge was covered by sea water.  This explains why the island jungles in New Guinea are occupied by midget marsupial tree kangaroos instead of placental apes and monkeys that inhabit nearby Indonesia (internet).  Being the first land animals south of the covered land bridge after the Flood, marsupials were protectively isolated from competing placental mammals which allowed them to at last peacefully proliferate. Small groups of human hunters arrived (in boats) centuries later after marsupial numbers had increased. Any marsupials that migrated in directions other than southeast from Ararat were forced to live among placental mammals that out-competed them for food and resources in shared ecosystems and later humans who hunted them. So they died out. Many fossil marsupials are found in South America, so apparently marsupials crossed the land bridge to the Americas but most became extinct from competing with placentals. Today, only the rat-like, omnivorous, nocturnal marsupial "opossums" that have a high birth rate successfully live in the Americas among placental mammals. The somewhat similar appearing marsupial "possoms" are native to Australia.

Conventional science says Australia’s few small, placental mammals- rats and bats, and reptilian snakes and lizards descended from creatures that long ago “floated across waters from Asia” (internet source). Ancestors of their frogs could have also floated in.  There were many logs and much vegetation floating in the oceans during the 11 month global Flood for small animals to ride on. Animals that came to Australia by “floating in” arrived after the ice age land bridge closed that evidently locked-in the marsupials, monotremes, and platypuses. Australia’s non-native placental rabbits, and toads were recently imported by humans, and without natural predators they over-reproduced to make nuisances of themselves. 

The complete absence of large native placental mammals in Australia is evidence the later arriving early humans, including ancestors of those buried in the ancient cemetery in Kow Swamp (above) crossed significant water in boats they built to reach the Australian coastline. 

How did penguins reach Antarctica?

Penguins didn’t migrate to Antarctica. Evidently they were carried there by continental drift during breakup of the original supercontinent of Pangea during Noah’s Flood {Topical note 4, Earth's plate tectonics}.  Continental drift gradually slowed to today’s average rate of only about 20cm/year as the earth's interior cooled after its brief overheating at the start of the Flood, according to creation scientists. Penguins are amphibious flightless birds that are well adapted to swimming in the ocean for long periods to catch fish, so evidently penguins were not kept on Noah’s Ark.  Today different varieties of penguins inhabit desolate coastal areas of all continents and islands only in the Earth’s southern hemisphere: Australia and New Zealand, South America (as far north as the equator), southern Africa, and Antarctica and the small islands in the extreme southern Atlantic and Pacific oceans. (See worldwide penguin distribution map{45}). Although they swim hundreds of miles from their coastal homes to catch fish they don’t migrate, but couples normally return to their home beaches seasonally to mate and breed. Because foggy nights confuse penguin navigation{46} they presumably use celestial navigation at night with the bright southern Milky Way, and the Magellanic Clouds that are two nearby galaxies visible only from the southern hemisphere. Together, these celestial luminaries appear high in the night sky year-round in the southern hemisphere. And the southern Milky Way that contains our galactic center (in Sagittarius) is brighter and more visible than in the northern hemisphere that faces away from the galactic center. These nighttime navigational aids could explain why penguin distribution is strangely restricted to Earth’s southern hemisphere.

Plate tectonics during the global Flood (c3200BCE according to Josephus’ biblical chronology) broke up the original supercontinent of Pangea that is described in Topical note 4, Geology of the Flood summarized.  Pangea is shown on the interactive world map{11}. An animated map{44} shows how Pangea’s breakup process was followed by continental drift of the resulting smaller land masses to their present locations. Conventional geologists place an ancient date for the breakup of Pangea as “millions of years” ago. However, strict uniformitarian geology is losing favor with conventional geologists (Topical note 6). Some geologic land formations are obviously the result of brief catastrophic events such as as the those produced by the recent eruption of Mt. St. Helens.

The animated map{44} shows a great land mass east and south of what is today Africa separated from it early in the breakup. Continental drift moved it away from Africa.  Then it split again and the southern piece was carried south and eventually came to rest centered on Earth’s south pole that formed Antarctica.  However, on its way south a large part of it broke off and moved eastward to eventually form Australia and New Zealand{44}. South America split from Africa later in the breakup, and finally one last piece of Pangea was carried northward that collided with southern Asia and formed the high Himalaya Mountains and the subcontinent of India.

Penguins remained in the ocean during the Flood.  The sea level over the flooded land was shallow and there was much floating tree debris for them to rest on during the Flood year (Genesis 7:20). At the end of the year-long global Flood penguins and numerous amphibious marine animals that also normally spend time resting and mating on land (seals, walruses, etc.) found themselves grounded. To keep from being stranded on dry land, these amphibious animals naturally followed the receding shallow sea water as land rose above sea level until they safely reached stable ocean coastlines.

Some penguins reached the newly separated land mass east of Africa that was steadily moving southward by continental drift. This land carried costal penguins southward and eventually became the cold, snowy continent of Antarctica when it stopped drifting centered on Earth’s south pole{44}.  After many generations penguins gradually became genetically adapted to the cold climate there (see Topical note 6, Micro-evolution within species). During their lengthy fishing expeditions from the Antarctic coastline they encountered many habitable southern islands that they also colonized{45}.  Penguins would have reached what is Australia and New Zealand by riding on the eastward drifting land mass east from Africa that became these southern lands{44}. This animated map shows that what are today South America and Africa gradually split apart from Pangea at their southern ends first. Penguins were able to travel along southern costal Africa and reach both the east and west coasts of South America before these continents completely split from Africa and became too widely separated (see animated map). Penguins continued to colonize further north along the west coast of South America as far north as modern Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands that straddle the equator. These have the world’s northernmost penguin populations. So, the modern worldwide penguin distribution{45} is actually predicted by the breakup of Pangea and their transport by continental drift afterward as shown by the animated map{44}. Topical note 6 describes the possible origin of other flightless birds. 

Why are “New World” monkeys in the tropical Americas?

Monkeys are land animals so they were kept on Noah’s Ark and released after the Flood. Those that migrated south from Noah’s Ark after the Flood found the Middle East and North Africa were much greener than today. What is the great Sahara Desert was instead an endless grassland with fish-filled lakes{19}, and the dense forests of equatorial Africa were becoming jungle habitats after the Flood for monkeys and other animals. Those that migrated east into southern Asia found similar environments in Asia and Indonesia. However, monkeys (and apes) are placental mammals so they didn’t reach New Guinea and Australia before the Asian land bridge to these southern lands was covered by the rising sea level at the end of the ice age (see ...Marsupial mammal species... above). Today, midget marsupial tree kangaroos instead occupy their ecological niche in the jungles of New Guinea.  However, placental monkeys and apes are plentiful today in the nearby islands of Indonesia because they were on the Asian side of this ice age land bridge that became covered when the ice age ended (see marsupial mammals above).

Some conventional scientists believe ancestors of the “New World monkeys” in South and Central America were “Old World monkeys” that floated from Africa on debris after the breakup of Pangea millions of years ago while Africa and South America were still close enough together (internet source).  However as was presented in the Marsupial mammal and Penguin sections above, the rapid breakup of Pangea began during the global Flood (c3200BCE according to Josephus’ biblical chronology). So the smaller modern continents were rapidly separating by plate tectonics and continental drift during and after the post Flood ice age while humans and animals were migrating to fill the earth. The biblical Book of Job mentions some of their effects during his lifetime.

The animated map that illustrates the breakup of Pangea{44} shows South America completely separated from Africa late in the process.  This delay provided a temporary direct land route for African monkeys and other animals whose ancestors came from Noah’s ark to continue migrating westward into what are now the Americas before they completely separated from Africa.  After thousands of years of reproductive isolation, New World monkeys genetically adapted to their generally similar yet unique jungle environments in the western hemisphere (Topical note 6, Micro-evolution within species). This included dentition changes by the addition of a new set of premolar teeth and for some groups also a new set of molar teeth that were possibly required by different food sources in the Americas.  Also New World monkey species may have either dichromatic (two) or trichromatic (three) color vision (internet). Although New World monkeys apparently had their origin in Africa, over time through micro-evolution the various monkey species that migrated to the Americas became genetically and morphologically different from their African ancestors that were “Old World” monkeys. Presumably continuous environmental tracking genetics (CET) responded to these environmental changes (CET is explained and cited in Topical note 6). Similar geographic reproductive isolation occurred in elephants (Topical note 6). It caused African and Asian elephants to adapt to their separate environments and then become genetically different enough so they no longer can reproduce together to make fertile offspring (internet source).   

Conclusion:

Topical notes 3A-3C explained that from their very beginning humans were created and made by God in Eden as intelligent beings with a spoken language.  They were capable builders of society who eventually migrated worldwide to “fill the earth” as God charged them (Genesis 9:1, 11:8). Animals migrated worldwide ahead of the humans according to His directions and supplied a ready meaty food source for them with God’s permission (Genesis 9:2-3).  

Click live web links to read internet references:

{43} Sauhl Shelf, Wikipedia. Refer to the “Map of Sauhl and Sundra” shelves. During the ice age the sea level was lower than today and a land bridge existed between the then dry Sundra and Sauhl continental shelves (see Geology section).  It connected Indo-China with Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania. This allowed the first animals (marsupial mammals) that arrived from Noah’s ark to migrate from Indo-China to Australia over land. As the ice sheets at Earth’s high latitudes melted toward the end of the 1000 year ice age the sea level rose to cover the land bridge and the broad continental shelves. Then ocean water isolated Australia and points south from Asia which blocked further animal crossings over land, specifically the later arriving large placental mammals.

{44}https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?&q=From+Pangea+to+Today&&mid=E9D81964A18DF2A9F9B3E9D81964A18DF2A9F9B3&&FORM=VRDGAR This YouTube video shows the split up of Pangea.  The animated map visualizes the split up to show where various parts of the ancient supercontinent ended up in the modern world.

{45}https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=dbbfMprL&id=342F41246563979F73605F1C96420123606FDC6F&thid=OIP.dbbfMprLbNa0mep6SjV6xgHaEa&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fth.bing.com%2Fth%2Fid%2FR.75b6df329acb6cd6b499ea7a4a357ac6%3Frik%3Db9xvYCMBQpYcXw%26riu%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252f4.bp.blogspot.com%252f_CDrCJXsmGvk%252fTT93gAIEBPI%252fAAAAAAAAA4E%252fHCxaQuwtAgU%252fs1600%252fPicture%252b6.png%26ehk%3DYhpktdLtdnAxfab%252birGcQlfiXpNTzyChmzCdUk83Kwg%253d%26risl%3D%26pid%3DImgRaw%26r%3D0%26sres%3D1%26sresct%3D1&exph=457&expw=766&q=penguin+locations+worldwide+map&simid=608011479576701749&form=IRPRST&ck=8C73E119FECC95B87EEBEACAA1ECE932&selectedindex=4&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0&vt=0&sim=11 Penguin worldwide distribution map

{46} https://www.westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz/news/how-do-penguins-find-their-

 way-home/ Penguin navigation

W. Cook

Independent researcher October 2025

Contact: genesismakessense@gmail.com

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