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

    Asked by naadine to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 17 Mar 2011. This question was also asked by imadonky.
    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      The egg. Since it is possible (and in many cases necessary) for the offspring of an organism to be genetically different from it’s parents, a chicken could have been born to another creature that was very like a chicken, but ever-so-slightly genetically different.

    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      To be pedantic – the egg. Dinosaurs laid eggs, and dinosaurs were around before chickens.

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi Naadine
      I can say with absolute certainty that it’s the chicken. Take any dictionary you like, and you’ll always find chicken before egg.

    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Neither they both evolved from somthing called the chegg!!
      Wasn’t it the dinosaur?!
      I’m sorry i’m no biologist

    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi naadine,
      This is a controversial one, but I think, since reptiles were laying eggs long before the chicken evolved, the egg certainly came before the chicken.
      That’s my view anyway!

      Eoin

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