what comes first the chicken or the egg?

Answer 1

A team made up of a geneticist, philosopher and chicken farmer claim to have found an answer. It was the egg.

Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life.

Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg.

Professor John Brookfield, a specialist in evolutionary genetics at the University of Nottingham, told the UK Press Association the pecking order was clear.

The living organism inside the eggshell would have had the same DNA as the chicken it would develop into, he said.

"Therefore, the first living thing which we could say unequivocally was a member of the species would be this first egg," he added. "So, I would conclude that the egg came first."

The same conclusion was reached by his fellow "eggsperts" Professor David Papineau, of King's College London, and poultry farmer Charles Bourns.

Mr Papineau, an expert in the philosophy of science, agreed that the first chicken came from an egg and that proves there were chicken eggs before chickens.

He told PA people were mistaken if they argued that the mutant egg belonged to the "non-chicken" bird parents.

"I would argue it is a chicken egg if it has a chicken in it," he said.

"If a kangaroo laid an egg from which an ostrich hatched, that would surely be an ostrich egg, not a kangaroo egg."

Bourns, chairman of trade body Great British Chicken, said he was also firmly in the pro-egg camp.

He said: "Eggs were around long before the first chicken arrived. Of course, they may not have been chicken eggs as we see them today, but they were eggs."

Answer 2

The chicken or the egg is a reference to the causality dilemma which arises from the expression "which came first, the chicken or the egg?". When used in reference to difficult problems, a chicken and egg problem is similar to a Catch 22 situation where something cannot happen until a second thing does, and the second thing cannot happen until the first does. For example, a person might have trouble finding a job without work experience, but to get work experience he/she must have a job.

The earliest reference to the dilemma is found in Plutarch's Moralia, in the books titled "Table Talk," in a series of arguments based on questions posed in a symposium. Under the section entitled, "Whether the hen or the egg came first," the discussion is introduced in such a way as to suggest that the origin of the dilemma was even older:

Answer 3

The Chicken Without it The egg couldn't just come out of anywhere. The Chicken which is a organism like many others was came by evolution

Answer 4

Since the logic is that the egg comes from the chicken and then the chicken also comes from the egg.. It can also be said that there is not an established fact to prove which came from which first. Hence, none of them came first.

Answer 5

A chicken and an egg are lying in bed. The chicken is smoking a cigarette with a very satisfied look on its face.

The egg rolls over grumpily and says, "I guess we finally figured out the answer to THAT question!"

Answer 6

Chicken. As we see in our world, Chicken would have been produced out as an hybrid variety of any other living beings. But, to produce egg, we need Hen and in turn chicken.

Answer 7

The chicken because it can survive without haveing an egg but an egg can not survive without the chicken incubating it.

Answer 8

Definitely the chicken... Chicken evolved out from some organism very different dan it is now...so chicken came first...then the egg...then nother chicken...then nother egg...then a chicken....then an egg...chicken ...egg... chicken... egg... I think u got what m tryin to say!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 9

The chicken came first.

Answer 10

This question has been asked so much on yahoo answers that if you don't know the answer by now you should be locked in a pen full of chickens to find out.