What came first the Chicken or the Egg?

Answer 1

Chicken and egg debate unscrambled
Egg came first, 'eggsperts' agree

Friday, May 26, 2006; Posted: 7:33 a.m. EDT (11:33 GMT)

LONDON, England -- It's a question that has baffled scientists, academics and pub bores through the ages: What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Now 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."

The debate, which may come as a relief to those with argumentative relatives, was organized by Disney to promote the release of the film "Chicken Little" on DVD.

Answer 2

Which came first - the chicken or the egg? "The chicken" came first - in the sentence of the question. If the question is phrased differently, the answer is different.
Reframing the question

It could be said that the question simply requires one to know the context. Most people thinking of the question automatically think of the timeline and it is in this manner that both the previous evolutionary theory and religious teachings contexts arise. Other potential contexts are:

* Having looked through a dictionary from front to back, which came first? - the chicken or the egg?
* When you walked through the supermarket, which came first? - the chicken or the egg?
* When reading the menu, which came first? - the chicken or the egg?

Answer 3

Blatently it must be the egg and always will be!

In general evolution terms the previous bird would be almost a chicken and the chicken would hatch from that birds egg and be an evolved version of the previous bird!

And if we are talking about one particular chicken then blatently again the egg came first as the chicken developes within the egg and then hatches! Just because that chicken may then lay other eggs doesn't mean that they came before it!!

Answer 4

The chicken came first and then it gave birth to an egg. How could an egg appear from no where?

Answer 5

Oh for gods sake lol. I think i have the answer here. There must have been a bird of some sort to lay the egg. It's basically the theory of evolution in a riddle lol. Something (not a chicken) laid the egg which hatched the first chicken. Easy innit?

Answer 6

Chicken

Answer 7

Well since your question leaves it wide open as to what kind of egg we are refering to, then it is obvious that the EGG came first. I mean everyone knows that Dinosaurs laid eggs and that dinosaurs were around before chickens. Therefore eggs came before chickens.

Case closed.

Answer 8

The egg. There were dinosaurs before chickens.

Answer 9

Chicken, assuming chickens can come. Eggs can't come.

Answer 10

after the big bang a chicken or egg poped out out of a T-rex.
or at least that what they want us to belive.