• Question: What came first? the chicken or the egg?

    Asked by 643hafc45 to Chris, Josh, Rebecca, Rob, Susan on 23 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      I reckon the egg came first for two reasons: (1) lots of things have been laying eggs or reproducing using eggs in some way, long before chickens came along. Also (2) at the point that the genetic mutation occurred that produced the first life form that we call a “chicken”, that was inside a non-chicken-prototype animal, but it happened in the egg that then went on to mature and become a chicken!

    • Photo: Susan Cartwright

      Susan Cartwright answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      Evolution acts by means of mutations in the sperm and egg cells that form new individuals. This means that the first bird that satisfied the definition of “chicken” (whatever that is) hatched from an egg that was laid by a bird that was *almost*, but not *exactly*, a chicken. So the egg came first.

      Eggs are of course laid by lots of species that evolved long before chickens, e.g. turtles. But I assume that’s not what you meant.

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