Associate
Egg Conundrum Is Cracked
Updated: 19:46, Friday May 26, 2006
A geneticist, a philosopher and a chicken farmer claim to have finally solved the age-old question: What came first, the chicken or the egg?
Apparently, it was the egg.
Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life.
Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg.
Professor John Brookfield, a specialist in evolutionary genetics at the University of Nottingham, said the pecking order was clear.
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The living organism inside the eggshell would have had the same DNA as the chicken it would develop into, he said.
"Therefore, the first living thing which we could say unequivocally was a member of the species would be this first egg," he added. "So I would conclude that the egg came first."
Fellow "eggspert" Professor David Papineau, of King's College London, and poultry farmer Charles Bourns agreed with the verdict.
Mr Papineau, an expert in the philosophy of science, reasoned that the first chicken came from an egg and that proves there were chicken eggs before chickens.
The debate was organised by Disney to promote the release of the film Chicken Little on DVD.
trust disney to uncover the truth
but what laid the egg ?????
dave
Updated: 19:46, Friday May 26, 2006
A geneticist, a philosopher and a chicken farmer claim to have finally solved the age-old question: What came first, the chicken or the egg?
Apparently, it was the egg.
Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life.
Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg.
Professor John Brookfield, a specialist in evolutionary genetics at the University of Nottingham, said the pecking order was clear.
Advertisement
The living organism inside the eggshell would have had the same DNA as the chicken it would develop into, he said.
"Therefore, the first living thing which we could say unequivocally was a member of the species would be this first egg," he added. "So I would conclude that the egg came first."
Fellow "eggspert" Professor David Papineau, of King's College London, and poultry farmer Charles Bourns agreed with the verdict.
Mr Papineau, an expert in the philosophy of science, reasoned that the first chicken came from an egg and that proves there were chicken eggs before chickens.
The debate was organised by Disney to promote the release of the film Chicken Little on DVD.
trust disney to uncover the truth
but what laid the egg ?????
dave
Corrected lol
