“Death certainly could have existed prior to adam. There are not enough details in Genesis to know for sure.”
If you limit yourself only to reading Genesis, you might be able to get away with that statement. However, if you accept the entire Bible as God’s Word, then you are out of luck:
“12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
13To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.”
Romans 5:12-13
Yes I am aware of those verses. I studied Romans with BSF for months (no intention to act like I know that much - but I did study it). Yes those verses deal with man, sin and death but says nothing about animals. Before adam there was no man so yes death of man started with adam. Focus of Romans is on people and not animals.
I was just responding to the comment that death in general did not exist before adam. I expect we will all learn in more detail when we get to Heaven. Cheers.