• Question: what came 1st the chicken or the egg?? try and answer that!!!

    Asked by nollz14 to Jamie, Jodie, Kat, Mark, Niamh on 15 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mark Hill

      Mark Hill answered on 11 Mar 2011:


      How’s this for an answer? Sexual reproduction occurs between a male and female gamete – usually in sperm and eggs (note that I very carefully haven’t mentioned POULTRY!). Now, here we go. It is generally accepted that, through evolution, from prehistoric times, from aquatic creatures came amphibious creatures, and then land animals. Going on another stage, reptiles further evolved, some became bipeds, on two legs, and the front legs gradually evolved into flight limbs – wings. All of these creatures are thought to have been created through sexual reproduction, therefore sperm and eggs. This leads onto birds, who are believed to have evolved from winged reptiles and thus the answer has to be EGGS. I just cannot say whether the chicken’s egg arrived before the chichen. I hope this helps. If not, then it’s a good way of getting around the question. Mark

    • Photo: Katherine Davies

      Katherine Davies answered on 11 Mar 2011:


      Hi Nollz

      Now thats a question! To tell the truth I dont know.

      But, they simultaneously evolved I think. If you look at more basic, primitive organisms like fish, they still lay eggs. If you go back to bacteria, they clone themselves, rather than have an egg.

      So I think the chicken and egg evolved together over millions of years. The circle of life, ahhhh!

      Kat

    • Photo: Jamie Pringle

      Jamie Pringle answered on 11 Mar 2011:


      A good question! And one I dont have the answer to as it is a little philosophical.

      An evolution point to make is that there were plenty of reptiles laying eggs before chickens evolved so eggs would be my shout!

    • Photo: Jodie Dunnett

      Jodie Dunnett answered on 14 Mar 2011:


      Ah the age old question of the chicken and the egg!! As a believer in evolution and all that, I would have to say an egg (you didn’t actually say it had to be the egg that hatched into the chicken)! Which do you think came first and why?

    • Photo: Niamh Nic Daeid

      Niamh Nic Daeid answered on 15 Mar 2011:


      Hi Nollz14 – well ….if you accept evolutionary theory then it would be the egg …what comes out of the egg may not be a chicken of course….

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