• Question: What was invented first chicken or a egg?

    Asked by danielhor to Shane, Maria, Karen, Gabriele, Angela on 14 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Shane Mc Guinness

      Shane Mc Guinness answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      Ah Daniel, the good old chicken or egg question!
      Though it’s meant to be a joke, eggs have actually been around for MUCH longer than chickens have, if you think about it!. Dinosaurs laid their young in eggs, so do amphibians (like frogs) and turtles. So, eggs have been around for a lot longer than just birds, and chickens are birds. Through slow evolution, with a lot of eggs and things that looked like birds, to something that looked a little more birdy, to finally a chicken coming from an egg! Still, a type of egg, then chickens is my answer!
      Hope that covers your rather tricky question!

    • Photo: Karen McCarthy

      Karen McCarthy answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      Oh I love this question, its a favourite one to debate over scrambled eggs!

      As Shane said, the concept of eggs is quite an old one! Originally there was a bird creature, somewhat similar to a chicken, which mated with another similar creature. Separately, these 2 parents had similar characteristics which when combined, resulted in an egg, and then from this was the first chicken.

      This is a classic example of evolution, where characteristics come together in a creature, which over time are more suitable for the environment and thus are consistently encouraged, for want of a better word, resulting in a creature we now recognise.

    • Photo: Angela Stevenson

      Angela Stevenson answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      well, that’s got me thinking! lets see, a chicken lays an egg, the egg hatches and you get a chicken, without the chicken you have no egg and vice versa, right? According to top scientists the formation of egg shells relies on a protein found only in a chicken’s ovaries, so the egg can only have been laid by a chicken. So that’s it, you need a chicken to produce an egg… well, not quite, but I still pick the chicken – it really is a mind twister that could go on forever! Great question again Daniel 🙂

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