Chicken and egg question goes back to ancient times, but there’s a simple answer

Chicken and egg question goes back to ancient(ˈānCHənt) times, but there’s a simple answer

A scientist explains why technically it’s easy to explain which came first.

By Jason Bittel

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Believe it or not, this question has its roots in ancient Greece(grēs), where philosophers(fəˈläsəfər) used it as an excuse to argue about cause and effect. What’s more, it’s what is known as a paradox(ˈparəˌdäks) — a situation or statement that appears to present contradicting(ˌkäntrəˈdikt) facts, both of which can logically be true.

Some might say the chicken came first, since you can’t have an egg without a chicken to lay it. But others might argue the egg came first, since all chickens begin life inside of an egg.

A paradox, right? Not if you want to get technical. The question has a rather simple answer if you talk to an ancient egg expert.

“It’s pretty straightforward(ˌstrātˈfôrwərd),” said Jasmina Wiemann, a molecular(məˈlekyələr) paleobiologist(ˌpālēōbīˈäləjist) at Yale University. (Paleobiology(ˌpālēōbīˈäləjē) is the science of fossil(ˈfäsəl) organisms(ˈôrgəˌnizəm).) “The egg is much older, evolutionarily(ˌevəˌlo͞oSHəˈnerəlē), than the chicken.”

Chickens, as we know them, probably became domesticated(dəˈmestəˌkādəd) about 10,000 years ago. But the animals that they descend(dəˈsend) from, known as jungle(ˈjəNGgəl) fowl(foul) or Gallus, can be dated back 21 million years.

Now that might sound pretty ancient, but the incredible, edible(ˈedəbəl) egg has been around for hundreds of millions of years.

For instance, scientists recently discovered a fossilized(ˈfäsəˌlīzd) bird from northwestern China with an egg stuck inside its body. At 110 million years old, this species(ˈspēsēz, ˈspēSHēz), known as Avimaia schweitzerae, would have flitted about in a world dominated(ˈdäməˌnāt) by dinosaurs(ˈdīnəˌsôr). It’s the most ancient bird egg ever discovered.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/chicken-and-egg-question-goes-back-to-ancient-times-but-theres-a-simple-answer/2020/03/24/7ece878a-60e0-11ea-9055-5fa12981bbbf_story.html