Which came first? The bird or the egg??

Answer 1

lol... it's a trick question
the egg came first, since you did not specify that it was a bird egg

Answer 2

OK, here is my standard answer for the chicken/egg question, however it should apply to all birds. . .

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 ancestor of the bird (prehistoric bird) came first, which gave birth to another prehistoric bird down the line until evolution caused a change in genes to build into what is the modern bird. There was no "1st bird" or no 1st egg, but if there was it would be the egg.

Answer 4

no-one can truly know the answer to this question. A bird would need to lay an egg, and the egg would need to hatch so that there would be a bird to lay the egg.

Answer 5

Not exactly sure, because you have to have a bird in order to get the egg. But, in the beginning of any birds life, there had to be an egg to hatch in order to get the bird, etc......................................However, will we ever know the answer? If I eat the bird, then there are no eggs, and if I eat the eggs, then there are no birds! What was Einsteins theory on this one?

Answer 6

Eggs evolved millions of years before birds did.

Answer 7

The bird had to be born to lay an egg

Answer 8

The bird. Somebody had to nurture the egg (ie sit on it, keep it warm, etc), or the egg would not have survived/hatched, and there would be no bird.

Bottom line: Bird, somebody had to take care of the egg.

Answer 9

The bird, most likely. It probably started as two half-species (somewhat resembling birds) mated, had a little birdie egg, out of which hopped a bird.

Answer 10

the bird because the egg had to be laid by the bird.

Answer 11

lol it's a tricky question...both answers can be right...cause from the egg comes the bird..but who left the egg the bird!! so...