What came first the chicken or the egg.

[hippocratie]

I never found this question to be very puzzeling but maybe it's just me. Evolution takes place in the egg.

[earthprowler]

Reproduction:
Cross Section of a Newly Laid Egg
The Formation of an Egg:

The Yolk: The chicken egg starts as an egg yolk inside a hen. A yolk (called an oocyte at this point) is produced by the hen's ovary in a process called ovulation.

Fertilization: The yolk is released into the oviduct (a long, spiraling tube in the hen's reproductive system), where it can be fertilized internally (inside the hen) by a sperm.

The Egg White (albumin): The yolk continues down the oviduct (whether or not it is fertilized) and is covered with a membrane (called the vitelline membrane), structural fibers, and layers of albumin (the egg white). This part of the oviduct is called the magnus.

The Chalazae: As the egg goes down through the oviduct, it is continually rotating within the spiraling tube. This movement twists the structural fibers (called the chalazae), which form rope-like strands that anchor the yolk in the thick egg white. There are two chalazae anchoring each yolk, on opposite ends of the egg.

The Eggshell: The eggshell is deposited around the egg in the lower part of the oviduct of the hen, just before it is laid. The shell is made of calcite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate.

This entire trip through the oviduct takes about one day.

Growth of the Embryo: The fertilized blastodisc (now called the blastoderm) grows and becomes the embryo. As the embryo grows, its primary food source is the yolk. Waste products (like urea) collect in a sack called the allantois. The exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide gas occurs through the eggshell; the chorion lines the inside surface of the egg and is connected to the blood vessels of the embryo.

The Incubation Period: The embryo develops inside the egg for 21 days (the incubation period), until a chick pecks its way out of its eggshell and is hatched.

from: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/birds/info/chicken.shtml

:D :duckie:

[hippocratie]

Interesting earthprowler, but it wasn't a hen. Maybe it was homo-erectus-poltrus.

[Merlin6]

Eggs were around for a long time before chickens evolved enough to come out of one.
Logically, the egg came first.


Merlin6

[psychoslice]

Neither came first, something like the big bang came first, that is when existence came into being, and from there like from an egg of energy slowly came many other forms until what we now have, the chicken and the egg.

[Sangress]

Easy answer : I dont careee! Gahhh!

Egg hatches chicken, chicken lays egg....etc etc

If I were to take the question seriously I would say that the egg comes first because it is inside a hen BEFORE it is fertilized...therefore there is no chicken in that egg until a rooster....does what a rooster is supposed to do.

And then we say "But you need a chicken to have an egg...so HAH!"

Easy answer: Chickens are magic, they fall from the sky randomly.

Buuut again if I were to take this seriously then I'd say that evolution created the bird we know as a chicken over a looong period of time and, after however long it gained the ability to produce offspring via eggs.

And the offspring which hatched from those eggs were chickens. (Were they the first "real" chickens?)

....I'm not being very rhetorical with this am I...or spiritual for that matter.

How about we make this into a poll when we have a variety of answers?

Then we'd know the answer for sure (until the results of the poll changes...again. Lol.)

And now I figure out that I contradicted myself sooo.....now I'll just go with the easy answer - I don't care and chickens MUST be magick.

Aren't I a smart little chookie now?

[Gem]

I never found this question to be very puzzeling but maybe it's just me. Evolution takes place in the egg.

To think one came first necessitates to the other coming second. Lets use the example of a running race. Surely one runner crosses the line first only because there are those who cross the line thereafter, so without the second runner can it be said the winner came 'first'?

It seems the two runners must run concurrently for there to be one first and the other second, so in the case of the chiken and the egg, both must be simultaneous in before they are placed in order, and neither can come first unless the second is already 'running'.

[Mountain-Goat]

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

One's conclusions or theories, or paths one chooses to explore will be based on the position one takes to observe the problem, yes?

I'm still a fan of the theory that the egg carton was first.

[Perceiver]

Eggs were around for a long time before chickens evolved enough to come out of one.
Logically, the egg came first.


Merlin6

Also, red junglefowls (Gallus gallus) are considered to be the ancestors of chickens.