It's a logical circle that never ends! Unless, Science!
In absolute evolutionary terms, the egg came about millions of years before chickens. The oldest fossilized eggs ever found are about 600 million years old, and probably belonged to a tiny species similar to modern coral. Many invertebrate and all vertebrate females produce eggs in order to reproduce. Most mammals (excluding the platypus and echidnae, which lay eggs) and even a few other species, including some sharks, skinks, and snakes, have live births after their eggs are fertilized internally and their embryos develop in the womb. The eggs of fish and amphibians are soft and jelly-like and are not surrounded by a shell, whereas reptilian eggs have a leathery shell and bird eggs have hard shells in different textures. Eggshells first evolved in reptiles and allowed them to lay eggs away from the water, a major step in the evolution of land animals. Dinosaurs laid eggs, and since birds descended from dinosaurs, so do they. So from that standpoint, eggs clearly win the debate.
But what about if we just look at the evolution of the chicken? Speciation is really cool, but it can be a little confusing. There’s never a strict dividing line where you can say with certainty that the mother is a different species from her offspring. Species diverge via minute genetic changes that add up over time until there are two or more groups of descendants from a single ancestor that either will not mate if given the opportunity or will produce sterile offspring such as zedonks (half zebra, half donkey). It can take countless generations for a new species to emerge, with each generation being slightly less like their ancestral species and more like the new one that will eventually be recognized. That’s why it’s so hard to find “missing links” in evolution and can sometimes be difficult to determine the exact species of transitional fossils. Thousands of years ago there was a long-gone bird species that slowly evolved into the chickens we recognize today. On average, each egg contained a chick that was slightly more chicken-like than its parents. Once again, the egg came first!
Any other fun science or math questions you’d like to see answered in a future post? Leave ‘em in the comments below. And no, so far as I know there is no scientific reason that I know of that caused the chicken to cross the road, so don’t even try that one, wiseasses!
Sources:
Eggs and Their Evolution by Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye.
Wikipedia articles on egg biology and chickens.
Image via Wikimedia Commons, unattributed.
-
Inspired
-
Smart
-
Tickled
-
Hungry
-
Empathetic
-
Smash!
![Avatar of [E] Hillary](http://persephonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/avatars/241/2d29ce709e5c9931795aa98c0ecb5521-bpthumb.jpg){kind=avatar}
Cool! And I love the feeling of reptile eggs, one day I will make clothes from it (empty ones, of course!)
This article made me chuckle, because the last time I got into this argument, this is basically what I said. But the article is a lot more in-depth and cooler!
Thanks! It was a fun one to write.
As one who has cared for chickens (chickensitting – I’m not THAT portlandish) I can tell you why a chicken will cross the road.
Because that’s where there’s a vacant lot and the neighbor dumps their trash over there in the brambles and as any chicken caregiver knows (or will soon find out), chickens peck at or eat everything, including food scraps. They run like mad to old potatoes and squash.
(Also, that sentence up there may have just been a great example of the “they’re, their, there” grammer issue.)
We had chickens when I was a tiny kid, but the coop was way too far from the road for them to ever cross it so I had no useful insight. Thanks! :)
This is the most awesome thing ever.
Have I told you lately that I love you? And also, this article.
Love you too!
So, a chicken and an egg are lying in bed together. The chicken rolls over, lights a cigarette, and says, “Well. That answers that question.”
Ba-dum-ch!
Hah!
LOL! :D
Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week! Unfortunately, I only know three jokes and that was one of them, so it’s going to be a long few days.
bwahahahahaha!
I came so close to adding a joke about the rooster coming first, but then I would have felt obligated to actually look up chicken copulation and I really just didn’t feel like going there, not even for science.
You made the right choice.
Hahaha!
I need to tell that joke to my dad.
I first heard that joke when I was seven, and first understood it when I was sixteen.
I’m slow.
When I was in college, I worked with a very proper former Catholic schoolgirl who told this joke to the whole staff, then turned beet red and wouldn’t say anything else for half the meeting. I will remember it, and her, forever!