Chicken or egg, what came first? It's a pretty simple question to answer dear Steemians. At first there was an egg. Out of this egg a chicken hatched. See, pretty simple right? If there was no egg there would be no chicken! But wait a second – where does that egg come from? A chicken must have laid the egg. No chicken, no egg.
Even back in the good old days people struggled to answer this question. Aristotles (384 – 322 BC) tried to figure out what was first and came to the conclusion that both must always have existed. More than 2000 years later we now know better. In today's article we will finally solve this puzzle and make things clear. Or worse.
Before you continue to read I would like you to take a second and try to answer the question on your own first. Let us know in the comments what you think. The three funniest comments will win 10 SBD!
Reproduction and egg formation
In order to answer whether the chicken or egg was first we will have a look at reproduction of cells and egg formation. Both will help us in understanding the scientific part behind our answer. The following part of reproduction is taken from my article Life Explorers – The Science Academy – Bacteria and Viruses. Biological reproduction follows a certain mechanism we will investigate: Mitosis and Meiosis.
Mitosis
Mitosis is a stage in the cell cycle which produces two identical daughter cells from one mother cell. The mitosis runs in 6 stages:
Interphase: Is the phase between two mitoses and serves the preparation of the next mitosis. Is the longest phase which takes up to 90% of the cell division cycle. The interphase itself is not part of the mitosis, but is responsible for the DNA replication.
Prophase: The DNA in the nucleus has the form of a double helix. This double helix is wrapped around certain proteins. During the prophase the DNA is packed more densely and changes it appearance. The process is called DNA condensation. The chromosomes are now visible under a light microscope (See figure below). Mitotic spindles are built, which will later separate the chromosomes.
Metaphase: The spindles align the chromosomes in the equatorial plane. This is important to make sure that the next phase works correctly.
Anaphase: The two chromosomes are separated in the middle (kinetochores) and pulled towards the opposite sides of the cell.
Telophase: The separated chromosomes reached the opposite side of the cell and the daughter cells start to build their own membrane. The DNA condensation is reversed.
Cytokinesis: Two daughter cells with an own nucleus each are produced. The mitosis is finished.
A short note about the DNA packing. As told DNA is a double helix string which however has different appearance. During mitosis the condensation of DNA happens which puts the double helix into the form of chromosomes.
The meiosis is also a form of cell reproduction, but the daughter cells are not identical. Meiosis plays a great role in sexual reproduction where we need to mix the chromosomes to create a new and unique individual. If sexual reproduction by humans would follow only mitosis we all would look the same and there would be no different genders.
Once there was a chicken-like animal. This chickenlike-chicken laid some chicken-like eggs from which other chickenlike-chickens hatched. (Too many chicken-like chickens here) With every new generation mutations and changes in the DNA occur. Over a long period these mutations in the DNA caused that inside an egg a real chicken developed. And there we go, our first real chicken that hatched from an not chicken egg.
OC 17
British scientists from the Sheffield University found new evidence that chickens must have existed first. Inside the chicken ovaries they found a protein that is responsible for egg formation. Ovocledidin-17 turns calcium carbonate into calcite crystals, a molecule that makes up the egg shell. Without this protein the chickens were not able to produce eggs. Therefore, chickens must have been first since the protein is needed to build the egg shell.
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Myth or Fact? #15 - Survive a falling elevator by jumping up as it hits the floor
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Tim
"A chicken is an egg's way of making another egg."
-VM Varga on Fargo Season 3
😯
hahaha brilliant!
Thanks for reminding me i need to start watching Fargo again!
This season was not as good as the last but Noah Hawley is killing it between Fargo and Legion. Also he incorporated the Rebirth Brass Band's music into this Fargo season, so he's the man.
Hahahaa
Finally it's solved then. And the noble prize goes to @timsaid!!!
By the way, I also heard about this specific egg protein which only a chicken can produce, so yes most probably chicken came first.
and then the question will be.... Better an egg today or a chicken tomorrow???
Well if I still can earn 10 SBD, here have my comment!
I actually asked this question to my dad when I was young
Me : Dad, what came first, Chicken or Egg?
Dad : I guessed you would come with the complicated question today, of cause Chicken
Me : Why!?
Dad : Don't you see Chicken starts with "C" but Egg starts with "E" So Chicken came first!
Me : Very goose dad! @#$!%
Who else is trying to give a cool comment in way to take some upvotes :D ?
Chicken first..
Nice post..
You did it
I hope so! :D
Well @timsaid kinda egged us on to do it. So the yolks keep rolling in.
🐔 vs 🥚 Mistery solved!
This post received a 2.9% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @codebreaker! For more information, click here!
rofl really @codebreaker, really?
No research and heavy analysis needed! The answer is very simple
I actually wanted to know this! You always seem to answer questions I didn't even know I had - well done!
It is so nice to see that you have done whole research regarding it, and then come to a conclusion!!
It is indeed a great article!!
Oh, I have been waiting for this one! I think we must turn to quantum mechanics for a proper explanation: at the beginning of it all, both the chicken and the egg were existing in a quantum superposition until a conscious being made an observation. Thanks for providing us with such detailed articles on important topics like this one :))
Really tho, I'm gonna go biblical on this one. Bear with me for just a bit. I feel that at the point of Noah's Ark that two animals of each kind was loaded onto the Ark made it clear that chickens had to be there, not eggs - of course this does not mean they came first. Then we have to ask the question, did God create eggs when He spoke of creating the beasts of the lands and seas. Okay that's all I got. Very well explained, Tim. Thank you for bearing with my ranting. Cheers!
I think God would have created the animals and not the eggs, because the animal / chicken would have been necessary to sit on the egg for it to hatch.
I would therefore say the chicken was first.
then it's decided, it is proven through science and now even on a biblical level haha!
Thats what I was thinking too. I mean i know this is a science post lol, but the bible says God created the animals so thats what I picture 😁
You're on the ball with this one boss ladeyyyyhhhh
What day do chickens hate most?
.
.
Fry-day!
Sorry, it is Friday. Looking forward to the weekend. 😊
Wouldn't the question be, "Which got laid first, the chicken or the egg?" Okay, that's a bad yolk. I crack myself up!
Funny
I don't think this qualifies as a funny answer to the problem. I always thought of it in the way of evolution.
At one point way back the pre-chicken-like things ( so pre-dinosaurs-like things since we are told that's where birds came from) must have had live births. Over time since that world was a tad more fierce than ours, perhaps they starting birthing earlier still in the embryonic sac. Maybe for protection, maybe for fun - who knows. Then over time the sac evolved with the proteins mentioned and it became a hard encasement. In time becoming the egg we know today.
So technically then - the chicken-like-dinosaur-like thing came first.
mmmm dino-chicken, the other white meat
I thought that was pork lol
Why do chickens lay eggs? Because if they dropped them, they would break!
LOL
it was KFC that came first :)
Hahaha, but what did KFC sell?
Big breasts. That is the reason why the chicken crossed the road because there was a KFC on the other side of it :)
Great post!! Keep it up :)
By the way, I'm following you now
Cheers
It's a paradox. The chicken was made by an egg, which the chicken unconsciously made that created itself. Just like existence as we know it. It's a loop, that we accidentally created us.
A circle has no beginning
Exactly :) the circle was created by circle.
As my first Steemit post, I'll announce that the egg most certainly came first!
Dinosaurs had been laying eggs long before the first chicken evolved.
The question is following: Does the question imply a literal interpretation such as that your answer may be right or is the asking metaphor if life was coming from evolution (the egg) or suddenly appeared (the chicken). If taken as a metaphor, as I take it, life (on earth) suddenly appeared and gave way to evolution. Which of course leads to a much greater debate. How did life suddenly appear? God, aliens, delivery by stray space material, sudden spark on earth that combined materials in the perfect combination to create life, or some other theory?
We will never know which one came first, BUT we do know they both taste mighty delicious!! Plus think about all the different ways you can prepare chicken and eggs.....YUM
This was indeed a great explanation for this legendary question: which comes first- chicken or egg?
According to me, umm... Whatever you'll order first in a restaurant will come first. :D
Haha... :D
Now, I would like to be serious and answer this question.. do we ask who came first- boy or a girl? Do we ask- whether it was a cat or a dog which came first? Then, why are we even concerned. And even if we are, for some reason, obviously chicken came first because we know that egg hatching requires conditions which is warm and therefore chicken sits on the egg. So, the answer to this question is not in mitosis, but in evolution. Many chickens must have formed and died and then they must have evolved to form an egg in order to carry forward the generation. :)
Soo true sister
Im your fan. How did you came up with the first two lines?
I dont care about the facts man.
Obviously the chicken came first and I bet she brought cock with her. Without doing "you know what" chicks do not born. You would ask then where that chicken and cock came from. Obviously from an other chicken. And then reverse action gose on till the bigbag
So in a nutshell (or an eggshell, if you like), two birds that weren't really chickens created a chicken egg, and hence, we have an answer: The egg came first, and then it hatched a chicken. Maybe the question we should be asking is: Which came first, the proto-chicken or the proto-chicken egg?
Seems like a simple question in the beggining, but how you've demonstrated it is not at all and we require genetic studies and great minds to solve this mistery! I am nobody but surely I agree with those who state that chicken must have been there first!
Still, remains a funny thing to break heads with! Have a nice day Tim ;)
"Scientists finally concluded that the chicken came first , not the egg,
because the protein ( Ovocledidin-17.)
which makes egg shells is only produced by hens."
... glad to see you on this community... let enjoy this to exploring writing the post and i look forward sharing story and photo on Steem..
im followed you and please follow me back at @giigii
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This question whistles. This question stalls beneath the answer and chops a crossroad with the censor. This question negotiates the resource under an adult effort. The coach silences the answer. Outside the crushing life speculates chicken. Chicken figures the reversed mill around the rescue and the law listens after egg. Why can't chicken result within the scheduled leisure? Egg appears throughout other egg. The appendix adds other egg.
If you call on a deity in a courtyard at the end of a journey you will bring about coming troubles.
lady come 1st
egg comes first and then chicken according to old sayings and myths...other than that nobody knows for sure, maybe science will figure this out...
Well eggs existed way before the chicken, fish were laying eggs first then amphibians to reptiles tp mammals and birds. Even insects were laying eggs before chickens.
Excellent post Tim! (Always eat the egg in your hand today instead of waiting for the chicken tomorrow which may never come)
Nope.
Unless you correct the question, there were eggs millions of years before chickens.
Oh, you meant chicken eggs? Is that an egg that is laid by a chicken or an egg that will hatch a chicken?
Those are two different questions which answer themselves.
best chicken is roast chicken
It's funny because I've always told people that the chicken evolved first than laid an egg, so the chicken must come first. lol Nice explanation. Now I have more details on how to support my answer!
The chicken, obviously. The egg was a chicken egg. Do you think they just fall out the sky?
That was too funny! I am still laughing. Hahaha! ....fall out the sky
:)
I cant say anything about it as its so difficult to say but you described very well in your article.i am from india and till i know and famous answer here is when god create earth they bring everything in couple of male and female so from it i also go with chicken because without them its almost impossible yo create egg.
Hey, I looked at your blog and they seem so interesting :) I followed you, please return the favour :) WE NEED TO BE FRIENDS!!
So I was right all along! The chicken comes first... lol!
Source created the chicken capable to create an egg.
I know for a fact the chicken came first. whatever it began as we're calling a chicken. Because we hadn't named it then. Just as we start off as sperm. This chicken(sperm) evolved and evolved.. had a child who had a child which then eventually gave birth to an egg from which the child hatched.
Trust me, I'm an eggspert, it's OK, it's Friday you can be eggcited.
This explains my theory.
Congratulations @timsaid!
Your post was mentioned in my hit parade in the following categories:
WAOOO this very fascinating and eye opening
When making fried chicken, you always dip the chicken into an egg wash before you coat it with breadcrumbs. Hence, the chicken came before the egg :)))
Great article, but its a bit like asking why the chicken crossed the road 🐓 ?
Nice explanation
Oh very good post!
but dont forget to upvote my blog too :D
Thank you by reading your articles. We learn things.
Follow my profile if you have the time.😊
Chicken
all the organisms are evolved from a single cell.aspplying this theory the egg came first (which is a single cell) the bird which gave this egg may not be a chicken(evolution)