End to the ancient debate: Science determines what came first - the chicken or the egg

The article reviews the ancient philosophical question 'What came first – the chicken or the egg?' and presents the unequivocal evolutionary answer: the egg preceded the chicken. It explains that egg-laying animals existed about 540 million years ago, long before the appearance of the domestic chicken. The chicken, Gallus gallus domesticus, is the result of a long evolutionary process of domestication that began with wild birds from Southeast Asia, including the red junglefowl. There was no single moment when a chicken suddenly appeared; over generations, small genetic changes occurred, until at some point two birds that were not yet chickens laid an egg containing a new genetic combination – and from it hatched the first chicken. The article cites AZ Animals and explains that the egg, as a reproductive method, evolved in ancient ancestors of fish, amphibians, reptiles, and other animals long before the appearance of modern birds. The evolutionary answer is unequivocal: the egg came first.