2007-07-20 22:28:09 · 6 answers · asked by hiteshrocks_11 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
In nature, living things evolve through changes in their DNA. In an animal like a chicken, DNA from a male sperm cell and a female ovum meet and combine to form a zygote -- the first cell of a new baby chicken. This first cell divides innumerable times to form all of the cells of the complete animal. In any animal, every cell contains exactly the same DNA, and that DNA comes from the zygote.
Chickens evolved from non-chickens through small changes caused by the mixing of male and female DNA or by mutations to the DNA that produced the zygote. These changes and mutations only have an effect at the point where a new zygote is created. That is, two non-chickens mated and the DNA in their new zygote contained the mutation(s) that produced the first true chicken. That one zygote cell divided to produce the first true chicken.
Prior to that first true chicken zygote, there were only non-chickens. The zygote cell is the only place where DNA mutations could produce a new animal, and the zygote cell is housed in the chicken's egg. So, the egg must have come first.
2007-07-20 22:40:19 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
I would add to melody's answer. Since the chicken is a domesticated animal, we really don't know when the first chicken appeared. There was probably a chicken like bird that early humans kept around. Artificial selection due to breeding probably had more to do with the origin of the chicken than natural selection.
good luck!
2007-07-22 00:50:33 · answer #2 · answered by eastacademic 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Neither really came first. The animal that laid the egg that became the first true chicken, was itself very nearly evolved to a state of being a true chicken. As such, it really makes no sense to ask which came first, in my opinion.
2007-07-22 00:28:32 · answer #3 · answered by Bob D1 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would have to say that the chicken came first. Then God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: beasts, creeping things and living things of the earth, each according to its kind: thus. (Gen 1:24) We couldn't very well have an egg if there was nothing to lay the egg and incubate it now can we.
2007-07-21 05:46:05 · answer #4 · answered by bluemaja_pooh 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Give Melody the "best answer" credit. She explains it all very well.
The "god did it" answer doesn't tell you anything except that the person who wrote it is too lazy to read anything except the bible.
2007-07-21 10:36:51 · answer #5 · answered by Joan H 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
egg...
2007-07-21 05:46:28 · answer #6 · answered by sss08 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋