Have you ever thought about which came first, the chicken or the egg?
It seems like a simple question, but it has actually been debated for a very long time. If a chicken comes from an egg, then how could there be a chicken to lay the first egg? On the other hand, if the chicken came first, where did it come from?
This question may sound funny, but there is actually some interesting science behind it. We went around the school asking different students, teachers, and admin about their view point and reasoning.
One argument is that the chicken came first. Some people believe that there had to be a chicken before there could be a chicken egg. After all, chickens lay eggs, so it would make sense that a chicken had to exist first. However, this still leaves one big question: how did the first chicken appear?
The other argument is that the egg came first. Eggs have actually existed for millions of years before chickens. After all, the egg does make a chicken so it would make sense that the egg came first. However, it still leaves the question: Where did the egg come from?
I went around the campus to get different views on the question. Here is what RCHS community members said.
“I think that the egg had to come first. The chicken came from the egg, a chicken couldn’t just come from nothing.” – Reese Nicholson (9)
“The chicken has to come first because how else will you get the egg, you see?”- Zoleiah Dunn (10)
“Chicken comes first because how did the egg get there in the first place.” – Sebastian Hernandez Guerrero (10)
“I think the chicken comes first because the chicken needs to lay the egg.” – Emma Mahler (11)
“I’m going chicken before the egg!” – Ms. Flammia (Intervention Teacher)
“I do believe that a chicken comes before the egg. The chicken has to come first because one you need two chickens to make an egg, and in order for that egg to survive, it needs to be nourished or cared for, and fed by the mother and father chicken to the new baby chick. Additionally, the egg without a nest would just roll around, and there needs to be a chicken to build the nest.” – Ms. Boggs (Math teacher)
“From a scientific and evolutionary standpoint, the egg came first in my opinion.” – Mr. Russell (Health teacher)
“I think that the egg came first. I think this is because the chicken comes out of the egg and produces more eggs/chickens after that.” – Kathrine Hinton (12)
“I think it’s a chicken.” – Cajuste Simeon (12)
Finally, science teacher Mr. Caudill chimed in with perhaps the most scientifically grounded explanation.
“From an evolutionary perspective, the egg definitely came first. The chicken egg is the vertebrate egg which can be traced back to the first vertebrate egg layers: the fish. Through descent from fish to early tetrapods to reptiles to dinosaurs and finally birds, we can see the evolution of the egg from a structure that needed to be laid in water to prevent drying out to the reptile/bird egg, which has structures and membranes that allow it to be laid on land.
Egg first! Chicken–hundreds of millions of years later!” – Mr. Caudill (Science teacher)
In conclusion, the question of whether the chicken or the egg came first received many different answers from students and staff. Most of the people who believed the chicken came first explained that a chicken is needed to lay, care for, or protect the egg.
On the other hand, those who said the egg came first used evolution and science to explain that eggs existed before chickens. The responses show that the answer depends on how the question is viewed. Through everyday reasoning, the chicken may seem to come first, but from an evolutionary and scientific perspective, it seems the egg had to come first. The variety of opinions makes the question interesting because there are reasonable arguments on both sides.
