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I don't know if this should be an answer or a comment, but an awful lot of contention people have with Noah's story hangs on the definition of "kol". It can mean "all" (and it is used this way in the Noah story and many other places) or it can mean "enough" (1 Samuel 2:22) or "everyone present" (1 Samuel 4:5)

It boggles the mind to imagine about 40 thousand species of mammals, birds, reptiles crammed into a 500 foot long boat.

The story of Noah's ark could specify a horrible regional destruction with the same words. The only thing that would change is the numbers of things we assume, but which the Bible doesn't specify.