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

    Asked by jackleton to Alan, Caspar, Diana, Murray, Sarah on 23 Mar 2011 in Categories: . This question was also asked by gemma123.
    • Photo: Caspar Addyman

      Caspar Addyman answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      There were eggs long before there were chickens. Dinosaurs came from eggs. Birds came from dinosaurs and chickens came from birds.

      But this does lead to an interesting question about when does a new species arise? Usually, it is impossible to tell from the fossil record because it has many gaps in it.

    • Photo: Murray Collins

      Murray Collins answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      Eggs. Definitely eggs. 100%.

      Dinosaurs laid eggs, and they were alive many tens of millions of years ago. The birds, (of which a chicken is of course one) did’t evolve until later. In fact, many paleontologists (people who study fossils professionally) think that the smaller dinosaurs are actually the ancestors of birds, like chickens.

      Do you know the term ‘like hens’ teeth’ ? It is an expression in english to describe something which is very rare. So occassionally a hen will be born with some teeth in its beak. It is thought that the teeth are an unusual reversion to more archaic (old) traits of the birds, which included teeth. Birds as a group lost their teeth millions of years ago.

      But anyway, I digress. Conclusion: eggs first, before birds existed. 🙂

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      The chicken 🙂

Comments