to say the egg came first.

[McHappyPants2012]

Because where would the chicken came from in the first place

[fireice]

If anyone isnt sure about how evolution works this book and this one explain it really well.

[InMySpareTime]

Is the new series of QI on yet? I've been waiting for the J series.

[StrandedBear]

You clearly haven't understood evolution if you think it was the chicken first.

[xDivAx]

And to add, any basic understanding of Darwin's theory of evolution and you would know that the egg came first, obviously most already agree with that statement (Unless you are a creationist, then you are bound to believe that the chicken came first).

Personally, I'm with Darwin.

[xDivAx]

[Anniegetyourgun]

Ah, that was it, sashh, not a cartoon at all

Memory of a...

[HipHopOpotomus]

but strawberry couldn't 2 non-chickens have a mutation at conception, which turns out to be a chicken, when it hatches from it's egg? So it's the egg that came first.

The question isn't what came first, the chicken or the chicken egg? If the very first chicken hatches from an egg (which presumably it must have done), then the egg came first.

[HecateHarshPants]

So... what came first, the dinosaur/reptile or the egg

the fish

[sashh]

A chicken and an egg are in bed.
The chicken is smoking a cigarette.
The egg says "well we've settled that one"

[strawberrybubblegum]

Clearly dinosaur eggs came before either chickens or chicken eggs, but I think the posts saying that 'how could a chicken come from a non-chicken egg' have it the wrong way round.

For any particular mutation (e.g. creating an extra protein in your eggs), the mutation happens at conception, when the new individual's dna is put together.

So, 2 non-mutant parents (i.e. dna says no protein in the egg) create an offspring with the mutation (who will have protein when it comes to make it's own egg). So, the chicken (or whatever mutation it is) comes before the chicken egg (manifestation of the mutation).

[InMySpareTime]

Still the egg (see mutant ancestor argument)

[Weasleyismyking]

So... what came first, the dinosaur/reptile or the egg?

[Moominsarescary]

kayano are they organic chicken and eggs?

[HecateHarshPants]

Yeah, I'm fairly sure the dinosaur came first

[GateGipsy]

Yes I'm with the egg first. You can't change species in the middle of your life. If you're born a chicken, you'll always be a chicken. You don't start out life as say a woodpecker and then half way through suddenly turn into a chicken.

Just like you don't start out life as a distant ancestor of both chimpanzees and humans, and then suddenly around the age of 13 find you've suddenly turned into homo sapien, while your best friend is now a chimpanzee.

Instead it happens gradually over millions and millions of years. And that evolution applies to the enzymes we use. The chicken's ancestor didn't suddenly get a whole enzyme that created chicken eggs. Slowly but surely a little bit at a time the chicken evolved and at some point along the way, the way it produces eggs evolved at the same time. But at some point, that chicken HAD to be an egg first. It just can't work the other way around.

[HipHopOpotomus]

Chickens evolved from reptiles and reptiles lay eggs. So the egg came first.

[Weasleyismyking]

Depends which way along the street you're walking...

[RiaSponsorsTheOlympics]

OP - yes, something genetically very similar to a chicken laid an egg with a new genetic mutation, out of which came the first chicken. The egg is basically part of the chick embryo, how could a chicken come from a non-chicken egg?

[Anniegetyourgun]

Reminds me of a cartoon I saw once... a chicken lying back in bed, lighting up a cigarette with a satisfied expression on its beak, while a grouchy looking egg next to it grumbles, "Well now we know the answer to THAT question". (Or they may have been the other way round, I don't remember for sure. But I can't really imagine how an egg would light a cigarette.)

[Kayano]

agnostic don't really give a shit

eats chicken and eggs

[Kayano]

The chicken came first

God created animals
Not eggs

[RiaSponsorsTheOlympics]

Tanith!

[Tanith]

Surely the Cockerel came first?

[howah]

oh... i see you have already come to that conclusion. I will go to bed now.

[howah]

The egg came first. Whatever laid the first chicken egg may have been a forefather of a chicken, but not necessarily a chicken.