I think the egg came first because in order for the chicken to even exist and evolve to its current state, it would need to be first hatch only BY THEN it becomes the famous clucking bird we know and love.

Checkmate chicken-ists your move?

  • cattywampas@lemm.eeEnglish
    64·
    2 months ago

    The egg came first. Mutations happen in the production of gametes, or sex cells, so a proto-chicken would have produced a slightly mutated egg that turned out to be a chicken.

    • TheFogan@programming.devEnglish
      10·
      2 months ago

      Accurate, but of course the real thing to note is in evolution, our lines and definitions of what a chicken is… is especially undefined. we just draw the line and call a particular creature a chicken… which is significantly more similar to the proto-chicken than a modern chicken is.

        • TheFogan@programming.devEnglish
          6·
          2 months ago

          ah yeah quite true, if the question is egg’s in general, then yeah, eggs existed before the first land walking creatures. I always assumed the question is meaning a chicken egg specifically. Of which the answer is still the same as, as assuming we as humans pick an arbitrary line to draw for being a chicken. Obviously before the first chicken exists, a creature just short of meeting the qualifications for a chicken, would have layed an egg of what we define as a chicken, to create the first “chicken”.

          • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            Another way to frame this is that, you can’t just magically create a singular being that’s a new species because it wouldn’t have anything to breed with. So it’s a long term gradual change of a complete population into what we know as a chicken today.