You’ve almost certainly heard the question before, and much more so about the various justifications for each answer. But which came first, the egg or the chicken? Scientists have shared their information on the age-old enigma, which may now have a conclusive answer.
Historical Philosophical Perspective
The question of whether the chicken or the egg came first has roots that extend back to ancient philosophy. Christian philosophers like Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas pondered this question and offered a solution based on Genesis, the first book of the Bible. They suggested that the chicken came first, as God created creatures.
Scientific Perspective
However, we are now in the age of science, and have long moved on from the aforementioned philosophers, who lived thousands of years ago. So, here is some science for you. According to BBC Science Focus, the answer is conclusive.
Eggs Preceded Chickens: “Eggs are significantly older than chickens. Dinosaurs laid eggs, the fish that first crawled out of the sea laid eggs, and the weird articulated monsters that swam in the warm shallow seas of the Cambrian Period 500 million years ago also laid eggs,” says Villazon.
Villazon goes on to remark that, while these were not chicken eggs, they were still eggs. This is a valid point, considering that the question does not specify which species the egg has to come from.
Clarifying the Question
Villazon then stated, “So the egg definitely came first.” Problem solved? Not quite. He continues: “Unless you restate the question as ‘which came first, the chicken or the chicken’s egg?’ Then it all relies on how you define ‘chicken’s egg.'”
Evolutionary Insight
We then return to a philosophical angle where he questions whether an egg is laid by a chicken or an egg from which a chicken hatches. Chickens are the ‘same species as the red jungle fowl of Southeast Asia’, but they were later ‘hybridized’ with gray jungle fowl some 10,000 years ago, when they were domesticated.
The Evolutionary Conclusion
The eventual result was this: “But it doesn’t matter; at some point in evolutionary history when there were no chickens, two birds that were almost-but-not-quite chickens mated and laid an egg that hatched into the first chicken.”
Villazon concludes by saying it’s up to you if you want to label that egg a chicken’s egg, in which case the egg comes first. If not, the chicken came first since the first chicken’s egg had to wait until it was laid.
Does This Make Sense?
Essentially, it comes down to how picky you are about the egg being a chicken’s egg. The answer varies based on how you frame the question:
- Broad Definition: If any egg counts, then eggs came first.
- Narrow Definition: If only a chicken’s egg counts, it depends on whether you consider the egg that hatched the first chicken a “chicken’s egg” or not.
Thus, the answer is both simple and complex, hinging on definitions and philosophical perspectives.