Chicken, and Egg Debate Unscambled

[Milton Bradley]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science...egg/index.html

LONDON, England -- It's a question that has baffled scientists, academics and pub bores through the ages: What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Now a team made up of a geneticist, philosopher and chicken farmer claim to have found an answer. It was the egg.

Professor John Brookfield, a specialist in evolutionary genetics at the University of Nottingham, told the UK Press Association the pecking order was clear.

The living organism inside the eggshell would have had the same DNA as the chicken it would develop into, he said.

"Therefore, the first living thing which we could say unequivocally was a member of the species would be this first egg," he added. "So, I would conclude that the egg came first."

Hehehe, this is exaclty the answer I gave all the way back in grade school when we were asked this question.


Vindication sure is a nice feeling sometimes.

[Rive]

hey, why didn't people agree on this sooner

it just makes sense

[Samildanach]

From article: Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life.

Then why do things such as cancer occur huh?

[Milton Bradley]

Then why do things such as cancer occur huh?

Isn't cnacer "abnormal" growth caused by outside interference such as radiation, or bad instructions passed on from the parent? ( Thus making our case )

[Samildanach]

Yes you are correct, lots of 'mutagenic agents' exist in nautre such as radiation, extreme heat, or viruses can change our overall dna makeup. The statement in the article is simply not true. what may have been another similar animal may have been changed into a chicken by one of these agents, activating some dormant egg laying ability from when birds used to be reptiles.

[RickSp]

I notice that once again the discussion completely ignores the pre-existing rooster.

[rcne]

It verifies my point in an other forum that the egg with a chicken in it came first. I claimed it was those mutated Y chromosomes from the proto-rooster and proto-hen that created the chicken in the egg.

Too bad the study was a media events staged by Disney for Chicken Little.

I still feel vindicated though.

[Samildanach]

proto-rooster and proto-hen? I thought we were talking about cromagnon or neanderthal rooster :)

[5010]

Biologically, to be a chicken the creature would have to have mostly chicken DNA.

Least likely: A virus or chemical changes most of a bird's DNA to chicken = chicken first
Less likely: Sperm or unfertilized egg is mutated before fertilization: egg first
More likely: Embryonic stem cell mutates after fertilization: egg first
Most likely: The DNA of the cell that produces the egg or sperm is mutated to chicken DNA: egg first

Then again, in the embryonic cell mutation scenario, one could call it a chicken living inside an egg, but commonly it is still considered an egg.

[Samildanach]

You haven't considered time travel in those equations. what happens if a chicken from the future..or even a pair of chickens from the future were caught up in a temporal vortex and transported back 10000 years in time then creating the first egg. So long as the chicken didn't interfere with history and stop his crogmagnon father and cromagnon mother getting together everything should be fine :)

[Samildanach]

Or you might have your interdimensional/pandimensional chicken...but then it gets complicated.

[Milton Bradley]

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