From: utzoo!decvax!duke!harpo!npoiv!npois!cbosgd!mark Newsgroups: net.misc Title: Re: A Chicken/Egg problem Article-I.D.: cbosgd.2496 Posted: Fri Aug 6 12:09:13 1982 Received: Sun Aug 8 08:26:25 1982 Here are two "proofs" that the egg came first. (1) I'll postulate that evolution occurs by mutation. The mutants that are inferior tend to tie, those that are superior (rare but certainly present) tend to do well and become dominant. Now, when does mutation take place? Either from a defective egg/sperm, or early in the life of the embryo. Once the reproductive organs in the embryo have developed, a random mutation is unlikely to affect any offspring. With this in mind, a proto-chicken pair mate to produce a mutated (chicken) embryo which becomes a mutated (chicken) egg. This chicken egg becomes the first chicken. (Presumably it must either have genetically dominant genes or inbreed with another mutant from the same litter to perpetutate the species.) (2) The egg came first, because there were dinosaur eggs long before there were chickens! (The rules said "the chicken or the egg", not "the chicken or the chicken egg".)