what came first the chicken or the egg?

Answer 1

Right. OK. Well.... toughy aint it? I suggest the egg. Think about this in evolutionary terms. Evolution is the small mutations in an existing species to create a new one. So- whatever laid the egg must have been going through an evolutionary change, and so there were small DNA changes to whatever was in the egg. The creature laying the egg probably looked a bit like our chickens now, but it wasn't until the mutation that happened during incubation that the chicken was born.

Answer 2

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 3

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?". Since both the chicken and the egg create the other in certain circumstances (a chicken emerges from an egg; an egg is laid by a chicken) it is ambiguous which originally gave rise to the other. Purely logical attempts to resolve the dilemma result in an infinite regress, since an egg was caused by a chicken, which was caused by an egg, etc. Since every chicken originates from its egg, it seems obvious the egg came first. Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life. The solution may require an examination of syntax and may rely on verification from advances in modern genetic science. When used in reference to difficult problems of causality, the chicken and egg dilemma is often used to appeal to the futility of debate and lay it to rest.

History of the problem

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:

"...the problem about the egg and the hen, which of them came first, was dragged into our talk, a difficult problem which gives investigators much trouble. And Sulla my comrade said that with a small problem, as with a tool, we were rocking loose a great and heavy one, that of the creation of the world..."

Various answers have been formulated in response to the question, many of them humorous.

As suggested by the alternative definitions and solutions given below, the chi

Answer 4

The chicken came together with the egg

Answer 5

The egg. Any new species originates from the offspring, therefor a bird similar to a chicken but not a chicken will have layed an egg with a genetic mutation. This mutation caused that bird to be what we call a chicken.

Answer 6

The egg. Dinosaurs were laying eggs long before the chicken came around

Answer 7

Well, Studies have shown that life started with a single cell organism. This was figured by the adaptation that they grew to multiple cells which were mammals. So the correct answer would be "The chicken came before the egg.

Answer 8

Is anybody else getting tired of explaining to the Yahoo! Answers Einsteins that the egg is a sex cell and that cell replication and mutation is the source of all life on Earth? This is retarded. I refuse to think that people in America are this unoriginal all around me.

The tree in the forest that falls when nobody is around, by the way, still emits sound waves. It turns out that they don't "just exist" because armchair philosophers are solipsistic.

Why?!? Who has actually driven themselves nuts pondering this? Where did you people go to school? When I was in first grade they treated us with enough respect not to feed us fairy garbage and we knew good and well that every plant and animal was made of reproductive cells, whether they did it together or by themselves. Guess which generation cracked the genome? Not the one after us that thought God dropped chickens into hen houses 2000 years ago! Get real. Is this all you want to know for the rest of your lives? Seriously, who's going to cure cancer?

Answer 9

The chicken. No other chicken was around to incubate the egg. Its like asking what came first the womb or the woman.

Answer 10

The soup came first,
then the egg salad
next the chicken (in the coq-au-vin)
followed by the Black-forest Gateau
and finally coffee, crackers and cheese.