Definitive answer to the debate about chickens and eggs

[loki100]

So long disputed as to which came first and here is the answer:

[Lobster]

In the Southern Hemisphere the chart is flipped the other way around so the egg is on top.

[Chickenboy]

As a poultry veterinarian, I would always get the brunt of any "clever" poultry-themed jokes that people thought were novel enough to share. The "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" quip was one of the more common. My preferred response was to launch into a boring phylogenetic profile of the development of the calcified externally-laid egg and explain how phylogeny recapitulates ontology. Get their eyes to glaze over with such boring-ass discussions. Relate how class Aves descended from class Reptilia in the fossil record. Explain how calcified, externally-laid eggs were around for tens (hundreds?) of millions of years before chickens came about.

Lastly, I would tell them that it would be a much more interesting metaphysical question if someone asked, "Which came first, the chicken or the chicken egg?" But no one ever does.

ETA: There's also the (*yawn*) response "The rooster." to the initial poser.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Lastly, I would tell them that it would be a much more interesting metaphysical question if someone asked, "Which came first, the chicken or the chicken egg?" But no one ever does.

I have always taken it as implied that it is a chicken egg in the question. In Sweden, when we do not specify what kind of egg it is, it almost always is a chicken egg. For example, I have never heard of anyone told to go and buy eggs and then got back with crocodile eggs.

[Orm]

So, which came first, the chicken, or the chicken egg?


[8|] [:)]

[Yogi the Great]

ORIGINAL: Orm

So, which came first, the chicken, or the chicken egg?


[8|] [:)]

An evolving bird on the way to becoming a chicken with the embryo inside of the produced egg being one more step toward an actual chicken as we know it to today.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Lastly, I would tell them that it would be a much more interesting metaphysical question if someone asked, "Which came first, the chicken or the chicken egg?" But no one ever does.

I have always taken it as implied that it is a chicken egg in the question. In Sweden, when we do not specify what kind of egg it is, it almost always is a chicken egg. For example, I have never heard of anyone told to go and buy eggs and then got back with crocodile eggs.

Ah. But do you in Sweden know what happens when you 'assume'?

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy
Lastly, I would tell them that it would be a much more interesting metaphysical question if someone asked, "Which came first, the chicken or the chicken egg?" But no one ever does.

ORIGINAL: Orm
So, which came first, the chicken, or the chicken egg?


[8|] [:)]

I typically ignore that question, as they already had their 'free shot'. [;)][:'(]

[Zap]

Since we have the Vet and we are talking about chickens. Do chickens catch rabies. What would a rabid chicken look like?

[lecrop]

The question comes first

[Lobster]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Lastly, I would tell them that it would be a much more interesting metaphysical question if someone asked, "Which came first, the chicken or the chicken egg?" But no one ever does.

I have always taken it as implied that it is a chicken egg in the question. In Sweden, when we do not specify what kind of egg it is, it almost always is a chicken egg. For example, I have never heard of anyone told to go and buy eggs and then got back with crocodile eggs.

Ah. But do you in Sweden know what happens when you 'assume'?

When you assume you get fire, the wheel, powered flight, men on the moon, rovers on mars, computers, automobiles, irrigation, pumped water, medicine, etc., etc., etc.

[tentackle]

I think Chickenboy knows the answer)

[Poopyhead]

The feathered dinosaur's egg came first. An egg hatched with altered DNA that was more chicken like and this continued until a chicken evolved to lay a chicken egg.

Eventually, humans built roads and it is a matter of debate as to what happened then.

[PipFromSlitherine]

Something (that wasn't a chicken) laid the egg from which the first chicken came. Ergo - the egg.

[Canoerebel]

Redacted.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: PipFromSlitherine

Something (that wasn't a chicken) laid the egg from which the first chicken came. Ergo - the egg.

Although this depends on how we define chicken and chicken egg.

If it isn't a chicken, can it have the ability to lay chicken eggs? Doesn't it lay something eggs that a chicken is born from?

[Lobster]

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/v ... fbd178131d

[Poopyhead]

DNA may be altered by natural processes. As such, members of one species may develop recessive genes that are not usually extant in the organism. Suddenly, a mated pair produce an offspring by recessive gene combination that is decidedly different. In animals, this offspring is called a sport. For instance, long legged sheep produced a short legged offspring. The new sheep were bred by shepherds because short legged sheep couldn't jump over fences. In nature, the new offspring may have an advantage that allows it to survive better. So ever less feathered dinosaurs bred ever more chicken like descendants, until as Pip pointed out, an egg containing a chicken was laid.

[PipFromSlitherine]

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: PipFromSlitherine

Something (that wasn't a chicken) laid the egg from which the first chicken came. Ergo - the egg.

Although this depends on how we define chicken and chicken egg.

If it isn't a chicken, can it have the ability to lay chicken eggs? Doesn't it lay something eggs that a chicken is born from?

The question doesn't say "chicken egg" just "egg". There are 1000s of breeds that can lay eggs. If the Q is chicken egg, then by definition is must be laid by a chicken, and so the answer is equally simple.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: PipFromSlitherine

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: PipFromSlitherine

Something (that wasn't a chicken) laid the egg from which the first chicken came. Ergo - the egg.

Although this depends on how we define chicken and chicken egg.

If it isn't a chicken, can it have the ability to lay chicken eggs? Doesn't it lay something eggs that a chicken is born from?

The question doesn't say "chicken egg" just "egg". There are 1000s of breeds that can lay eggs. If the Q is chicken egg, then by definition is must be laid by a chicken, and so the answer is equally simple.

I am sorry about that.

For me, it is just uninteresting if it is a generic egg in the question. In Sweden it is always implied that it is a chicken egg when asking that question. The original question is around two thousand years old and I have no idea how the exact wording of the question were. [:)]