# Which came first, the chicken or the egg? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 1999, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514 "1999-04-29T12:43:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AvoGadra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@AvoGadra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AvoGadra)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/21 "2000-04-12T15:50:00Z")
The question “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” does not say “what came first, the chicken or the chicken’s egg”. Dinosaurs laid eggs long before chickens existed, so the egg came before the chicken. If you are trying to figure out which came first, the chicken or the chicken’s egg, you would have to decide at which point in the chickens evolution it became the chicken of today. Then, the parent would not be a chicken, but, having laid a chicken egg, the egg would survive and hatch. Therefore, again, the egg came before the chicken. As to the question about the color of the egg, I own chickens, and it is only the shell that is a different color because of the breed of chicken. The egg itself is basically the same. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/22 "2000-04-12T15:54:00Z")
Someone already quoted this column, but I’ll provide a link to it anyway. [Which came first, the chicken or the egg?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_218.html) More semi-related information here. [Which end of the egg comes out of the chicken first? (Week of: 29-Mar-96)](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/960329.html) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/23 "2000-04-12T16:22:00Z")
[Special Creationist Hat ON] In the Bible, it says that God created birds on the fifth day, so therefore the chicken came first. > [@](#): > > \*\*originally posted by the Lord God Almighty: > Gen 1:20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” > Gen 1:21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. > Gen 1:22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” > Gen 1:23 And there was evening, and there was morning–the fifth day. ## \*\* [Special Creationist Hat OFF] 🆒 “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/24 "2000-04-13T04:16:00Z")
> [@](#): > > " A chicken and an egg are relaxing after having sex." What a foul, disgusting mind you have ,Whammy. There is a thread about incest for people like you! ## Wouldn’t have to be incest, just pædophilia. Tom~ ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/25 "2000-04-13T13:23:00Z")
Just wanted to point out that **Mr. John** posted that way back on 8-13-99. Remember 1999? Before Y2K? Is he even still around? Also wanted to know why this thread has been resurrected. Is it because it’s the Easter season? ## 😕 “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/26 "2000-04-13T13:34:00Z")
I heard the answer on a sitcom last night… it was a tie. 😃 * * * Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination. ---
**Author:** ![tony1234](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@tony1234](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tony1234)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/27 "2000-04-13T20:29:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Jophiel: > \*\*Just to elaborate on Markxxx’s answer: > > Imagine there are no chickens and as a result, no chicken eggs. However, we do have some proto-chicken wandering about, the foremother of what shall become the chicken. Said proto-chicken gets knocked up, and the while the egg is in creation, it undergoes a few mutations and comes out something that will eventually hatch into the first chicken. So, it is a chicken egg. Now granted, this is rather simplified, but I’d have to say that the egg came first. > > \*\* Well, there’s certainly room for debate. A case can be made that its what produced the egg, not what comes from it that established the nature of the egg. You crack open the egg from a proto-chicken and there’s nothing inside. It’s an empty proto-chicken egg, not a full “nothing egg.” You crack it open an a diamond falls out, a diamond in a proto-chicken egg. You crack it open and a mini-person hops out: A person in a proto-chicken egg! What about before it hatches. It is an open question what type of egg it is? I’m not saying these considerations are conclusive, just that it’s fairly debatable. Tony * * * Two things fill my mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe: the starry skies above me and the moral law within me. – Kant ---
**Author:** ![Twizzlers\_13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@Twizzlers\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twizzlers_13)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/28 "2000-04-14T00:06:00Z")
Well, that’s EASY!!! The egg came first. Dinosaurs laid eggs, way before chickens came into play. 😛🆒 ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/29 "2000-04-14T00:17:00Z")
An egg is a presumptuous chicken, and the real comes before the presumptuous, thus, the chicken before the egg. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/30 "2000-04-14T18:31:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by curious george: > Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The ribozyme. Actually, I think a more interesting question would be: which came first, the ribozyme or the mycelle? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/31 "2000-04-17T19:02:00Z")
The question assumes that you can tell a chicken from a non-chicken. While this may seem reasonable. I think this is a problem. When we look at animals that exist today, there is a big difference between chicken and non-chicken, but they (chickens) evolved slowly from “proto-chickens”. I don’t think you have a definite line between the chickens and the proto-chickens. The whole idea of classification was created by man. There is no answer because you cannot distinguish chicken from non-chicken. * * * Virtually yours, “Feynman was wrong. I understand Quantum Physics completely. Anybody seen my drugs?” - A **WallyM7™**.sig ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/32 "2000-04-17T19:38:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by TubaDiva: > \*\* What the heck, eat a brown shelled egg, take a walk on the wild side! > > IIRC (been a while since I been on the farm), eggshell color is determined by what hens are fed. The particular breed of the chicken may have something to do with it as well. > > There’s no difference, nutritional or otherwise, between white and brown hen’s eggs – except that brown eggs tend to be more expensive. Some people believe that brown eggs are “organic” or healthier and thus are suckered into paying higher prices for the same henfruit. > > your humble TubaDiva > Today a brown egg . . . tomorrow . . . who knows? We’re living dangerously! > > \*\* ``` Of course. Haven't you ever heard of..........unbleached flour???? ``` ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/33 "2000-04-17T19:55:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by DrMatrix: > \*\*The question assumes that you can tell a chicken from a non-chicken… I don’t think you have a definite line between the chickens and the proto-chickens. The whole idea of classification was created by man. > > There is no answer because you cannot distinguish chicken from non-chicken. > \*\* You’re right that there is no definite line between chicken and proto-chicken, but I don’t know why this is relevant. There are any number of defensible places to draw the line; wherever you draw the line, a chicken will hatch from an egg produced by a proto-chicken. I say that egg is the first chicken egg, but that is just my definition. So the egg came first. The point is, wherever you draw the line, the egg came first, as long as you define egg by what hatches from it, not by what produced it. Of course, if you intepret the question to mean, which came first, the chicken or the egg of any species, the egg obviously came first. * * * Hopefully, I can convince you to accept “hopefully” as a disjunct adverb. Frankly, I would be lying if I said I were confident. Perhaps this subject is simply too complex for me to explain. Unfortunately, I would be lucky to explain my way out of a paper bag. ---
**Author:** ![HeeHaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@HeeHaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeeHaw)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/34 "2011-12-28T19:34:28Z")
I don’t understand why this question is considered profound. The answer is very simple, IMHO: If you believe in Creationism, the chicken came first, as God created it when he created all other non-human, land-based animals (on the 5th day, if memory serves). If you believe in Evolutionism, the Egg came first as a logical progression from quasi-science’s oft-quoted “life-creating primordial ooze” to the egg from a non-Chicken that hatched the first Chicken. Can anyone poke holes in this theory? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/35 "2011-12-28T19:48:43Z")
[QUOTE=;261567] Reminds me of a joke: A chicken and an egg are relaxing after sex. The egg is smoking a cigarette and says with a pissed off look, “Well, I guess we know the answer to **that** question!” 🙂 * * * whammy. [/QUOTE] Chicken came first. Egg is just lucky to get laid by the chicken. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/36 "2011-12-28T19:53:49Z")
Reanimated neo-dinosaurs laid those eggs. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/37 "2011-12-28T19:56:49Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > Reanimated neo-dinosaurs laid those eggs. Zombie Chickens Caution ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/38 "2011-12-28T20:01:31Z")
Were usernames not associated with each post back in '99 or did those from the first 11 posts to this thread just mistakenly get dropped in some subsequent upgrade? Strange that they’re missing, each just registering “Guest”. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/39 "2011-12-28T20:15:39Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Were usernames not associated with each post back in '99 or did those from the first 11 posts to this thread just mistakenly get dropped in some subsequent upgrade? Strange that they’re missing, each just registering “Guest”. At some point the posts became disassociated with the profile of the poster who made them. I assume the default member status is “Guest.” Anyone responding should note that this thread originated in the Paleocyberic Era. ---
**Author:** ![Jamicat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/10514/40 "2011-12-28T23:15:59Z")
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