The Chicken or the Egg- Which Evolved First?

[Dante Writer]

Just a fun mental experiment to test your theories of evolution or Intelligent Design on.

Please do not go google someone else's explanation and post it.

Please explain how you came to your conclusion.

 

[Revoltingest]

It's easy to answer, although the exact time of the event is impossible to nail down.
The egg came first.
Why?
The chicken's ancestor also hatched from an egg.
At some point the chicken hatched, but the parent was a different species.
This difference would be very slight.
But in this scenario, the egg preceded the chicken.

Another view.....
The evolution from one species (which isn't a chicken) into a chicken is a continuum in which there is no set individual separating the two.
Were species defined differently, there could be an intermediate species which had elements of both.
In this scenario, neither came first.

 

[allfoak]

This should be very interesting.
Why do i feel like a trap has just been laid for the unsuspecting and innocent?

 

[Sunstone]

Chicken or egg? I think Easter came first. The colored eggs, then baby chickens as gifts. Am I right? Huh? Am I right?

 

[Dante Writer]

This should be very interesting.
Why do i feel like a trap has just been laid for the unsuspecting and innocent?

Now would I do that

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

The intelligent designer considered a number of different options for reproduction, and came up with the idea of eggs as one means (budding, live birth, seeds, spores were among the numerous other alternatives. Then, He/She/It/Them had to decide which species H/S/I/T was going to create, and which attributes to assign to which. The idea of eggs came first, then was assigned to Chickens in the course of creation.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Just a fun mental experiment to test your theories of evolution or Intelligent Design on. ...

The egg ...

... and how nice of you to take the time to test our 'theories'. ​

 

[ImmortalFlame]

Egg-laying vertebrates pre-date chickens, which evolved from earlier egg-laying organisms.

So, the egg came first.

 

[fantome profane]

the egg came millions of year before the chicken. Evolution is the only theory that can really answer this question and back it up with evidence. The egg must have come first, and the evidence backs this up.

 

[Dante Writer]

the egg came millions of year before the chicken. Evolution is the only theory that can really answer this question and back it up with evidence. The egg must have come first, and the evidence backs this up.

What laid that first egg and was that organism not born in an egg?

 

[Ouroboros]

The egg, since the egg laying ability both existed before the birds existed but also exists in other species. If evolution is right, fish species evolved before land animals, and they lay egg already. It's already there. Also, the ova in mammals are eggs as well.

 

[Ouroboros]

What laid that first egg and was that organism not born in an egg?

The most simple form of egg is the ova, which is a cell.

Any prokaryote is essentially the first egg. Cell division is just producing a copy of the first "egg".

Then there are thousands of variations of egg going from that.

 

[BSM1]

I think they were mutually inclusive.

 

[Acim]

Then, He/She/It/Them had to decide which species H/S/I/T was going to create, and which attributes to assign to which.

I think this would've read better if you had started with "She/He/It/Them."

 

[bobhikes]

The egg is basically a single cell organism. Single cell organism's came first this implies the egg was the first live thing. The egg was the start of life and today even live bearers still use eggs to start off life.

 

[LuisDantas]

May the OP offer his definition of theory for the purposes of this thread?

In any case, it is certain that eggs predate chickens. As a matter of fact, they predate avians even.

 

[SSDSSDSSD3]

The chicken evolved into making the egg, (the chicken came first, because it's ancestors probably made it that way). I don't know much either way, but I'm assuming it's the chicken.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

I think this would've read better if you had started with "She/He/It/Them."

Yeah, but I usually say it "Hesh'it'em" But I'll keep that in mind next time I shorten it up like that!

 

[Dante Writer]

The most simple form of egg is the ova, which is a cell.

Any prokaryote is essentially the first egg. Cell division is just producing a copy of the first "egg".

Then there are thousands of variations of egg going from that.

OK, why would that first cell develop into an egg then instead of the organism that lays

May the OP offer his definition of theory for the purposes of this thread?

In any case, it is certain that eggs predate chickens. As a matter of fact, they predate avians even.

the·o·ry

1. a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained.

 

[Ouroboros]

OK, why would that first cell develop into an egg then instead of the organism that lays

First you have multicellular organisms evolve. All of them reproduce by producing a single cell copy of themselves.

Over time, you get more advanced multicellular organisms, all of them reproduce by producing a single cell. (edit: by the way, single cell to multicell development has been observed in research, by accident. I think it was yeast that suddenly showed multicell behavior, or something.)

Then, the sexual reproduction evolves where two organisms of same kind share genetic material. One provide one part, and the other the other part, and somewhere at some point, the cells they shared evolved to be different, gender specific. The ova is a cell and so is the sperm. Probably some earlier forms of ocean animals, fishlike, perhaps.

Then you had land animals evolve, and they split up at some point, and mammals evolved to keep the egg inside the mother during gestation, while other animals buried eggs with thin shells like turtles, and other evolved to produce harder shells for the gestation to be protected.

Later on, birds evolved, and at some point one of the birds was domesticated and later named "chicken".

---edit

Think about this, dinosaurs existed before the birds, and we have fossilized dino eggs. A few of them even have embryos.