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| {{Wiktionary|chicken-or-egg question}} | {{Wiktionary|chicken-or-egg question}} | ||
| The '''chicken or the egg''' ] ] is commonly stated as the question, "which came first: the ] or the ]?" The dilemma stems from the observation that all chickens hatch from eggs and all chicken eggs are laid by chickens. "Chicken-and-egg" is a metaphoric adjective describing situations where it is not clear which of two events should be considered the ''cause'' and which should be considered the ''effect'', to express a scenario of ], or to express the difficulty of sequencing actions where each seems to depend on others being done first. ] posed the question as a philosophical matter in his essay "]", written in the 1st century CE.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Essays and Miscellanies, by Plutarch|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3052/3052-h/3052-h.htm|access-date=2020-07-07|website=]}}</ref><ref name="O'Brien">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQNEBgAAQBAJ&q=chicken+and+the+egg+problem+Plutarch&pg=PA106|title=The Demiurge in Ancient Thought|last=O'Brien|first=Carl Séan|date=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-07536-8|location=Cambridge, England|page=106}}</ref> | The '''chicken or the egg''' ] ] is commonly stated as the question, "which came first: the ] or the ]?" The dilemma stems from the observation that all chickens hatch from eggs and all chicken eggs are laid by chickens. "Chicken-and-egg" is a metaphoric adjective describing situations where it is not clear which of two events should be considered the ''cause'' and which should be considered the ''effect'', to express a scenario of ], or to express the difficulty of sequencing actions where each seems to depend on others being done first. ] posed the question as a philosophical matter in his essay "]", written in the 1st century CE.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Essays and Miscellanies, by Plutarch|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3052/3052-h/3052-h.htm|access-date=2020-07-07|website=]}}</ref><ref name="O'Brien">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQNEBgAAQBAJ&q=chicken+and+the+egg+problem+Plutarch&pg=PA106|title=The Demiurge in Ancient Thought|last=O'Brien|first=Carl Séan|date=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-07536-8|location=Cambridge, England|page=106}}</ref> | ||
| ==Scientific resolutions== | |||
| Although the question is typically used metaphorically, ] provides literal answers, made possible by the Darwinian principle that species ] over time, and thus that chickens had ancestors that were not chickens,<ref name="Fabry" /> similar to a view expressed by the Greek philosopher ] when addressing the paradox.<ref name="paradox" /> | |||
| If the question refers to eggs in general, the egg came first. The first ] egg—that is, a hard-shelled egg that could be laid on land, rather than remaining in water like the eggs of fish or amphibians—appeared around 312 million years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Benton|first1=Michael J.|last2=Donoghue|first2=Philip C. J.|date=2007-01-01|title=Paleontological Evidence to Date the Tree of Life|url=https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/24/1/26/1070944|journal=]|volume=24|issue=1|pages=26–53|doi=10.1093/molbev/msl150|issn=0737-4038|pmid=17047029|doi-access=free}}</ref> In contrast, chickens are domesticated descendants of ] and probably arose little more than eight thousand years ago, at most.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Miao|first1=Y-W|last2=Peng|first2=M-S|last3=Wu|first3=G-S|last4=Ouyang|first4=Y-N|last5=Yang|first5=Z-Y|last6=Yu|first6=N|last7=Liang|first7=J-P|last8=Pianchou|first8=G|last9=Beja-Pereira|first9=A|date=2012-12-05|title=Chicken domestication: an updated perspective based on mitochondrial genomes|journal=]|language=en|volume=110|issue=3|pages=277–282|doi=10.1038/hdy.2012.83|issn=1365-2540|pmc=3668654|pmid=23211792}}</ref> | |||
| If the question refers to ''chicken'' eggs specifically, the answer is still the egg,<ref name=SOR>{{cite journal|first= Roy A. |last=Sorensen|title=The Egg came before the chicken|journal=Mind|volume=101|number=403|pages=541–542|year=1992|url=https://academic.oup.com/mind/article-abstract/101/403/541/947797?redirectedFrom=fulltext|doi=10.1093/mind/101.403.541}}</ref> but the explanation is more complicated. The process by which the chicken arose through the interbreeding and domestication of multiple species of wild jungle fowl is poorly understood, and the point at which this evolving organism became a chicken is a somewhat arbitrary distinction. Whatever criteria one chooses, an animal nearly identical to the modern chicken (i.e., a ]-chicken) laid a fertilized egg that had DNA making it a modern chicken due to mutations in the mother's ovum, the father's sperm, or the fertilised ].<ref>{{cite web | |||
| | title=Finally answered! Which came first, the chicken or the egg? | |||
| | url=https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/finally-answered-which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg | |||
| | first=Melissa | |||
| | last=Breyer | |||
| | date=2013-02-11 | |||
| | website=] | |||
| | access-date=2017-07-11}}</ref><ref name="Fabry" /><ref name="Zushi">{{cite news|last=Zushi |first=Yo |publisher=NewStatesman.com |date=27 February 2017|title=Which came first: the chicken or the egg? |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/2017/which-came-first-chicken-or-egg}}</ref><ref name="NBCnews.com">{{cite news|publisher=NBCnews.com |date=14 July 2010|title=Which came first, the chicken or the egg? British scientists claim to have solved the mystery|url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38238685/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/which-came-first-chicken-or-egg/}}</ref> | |||
| It has been suggested that the actions of a ] found in modern chicken eggs may make the answer different.<ref name="Zushi" /><ref name="NBCnews.com"/> In the uterus, chickens produce ovocleidin-17 (OC-17), which causes the formation of the thickened ] shell around their eggs. Because OC-17 is expressed by the hen and not the egg, the bird in which the protein first arose, though having hatched from a non-reinforced egg, would then have laid the first egg having such a reinforced shell: the chicken would have preceded this first 'modern' chicken egg.<ref name="Zushi" /><ref name="NBCnews.com"/> However, the presence of OC-17 or a homolog in other species, such as turkeys<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mann|first1=Karlheinz|last2=Mann|first2=Matthias|title=The proteome of the calcified layer organic matrix of turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) eggshell|journal=Proteome Sci.|year=2013|volume=11|issue=1|page=40|doi=10.1186/1477-5956-11-40|pmid=23981693|pmc=3766105}}</ref> and finches<ref>{{cite journal|last=Mann|first=Karlheinz|title=The calcified eggshell matrix proteome of a songbird, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)|journal=Proteome Sci.|year=2015|volume=13|page=29|doi=10.1186/s12953-015-0086-1|pmc=4666066|pmid=26628892}}</ref> suggests that such eggshell-reinforcing proteins are common to all birds,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hincke|first1=Maxwell T.|last2=Nys|first2=Yves|last3=Gautron|first3=Joel|title=The Role of Matrix Proteins in Eggshell Formation|journal=The Journal of Poultry Science|year=2010|volume=47|issue=3|pages=208–219|doi=10.2141/jpsa.009122|doi-access=free}}</ref> and thus long predate the first chickens. | |||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
Revision as of 13:40, 22 March 2022
Philosophical paradox This article is about the philosophical dilemma. For the dish combining both chicken meat and eggs, see oyakodon.
The chicken or the egg causality dilemma is commonly stated as the question, "which came first: the chicken or the egg?" The dilemma stems from the observation that all chickens hatch from eggs and all chicken eggs are laid by chickens. "Chicken-and-egg" is a metaphoric adjective describing situations where it is not clear which of two events should be considered the cause and which should be considered the effect, to express a scenario of infinite regress, or to express the difficulty of sequencing actions where each seems to depend on others being done first. Plutarch posed the question as a philosophical matter in his essay "The Symposiacs", written in the 1st century CE.
See also
- Bootstrapping (compilers), the solution to an analogous problem in computer science
- Catch-22
- Sorites paradox
References
- "Essays and Miscellanies, by Plutarch". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
- O'Brien, Carl Séan (2015). The Demiurge in Ancient Thought. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-107-07536-8.
Further reading
- Experts apply new technique to crack egg shell problem 12 July 2010 Freeman, Colin L.; Harding, John H.; Quigley, David; Rodger, P. Mark (2010). "Structural Control of Crystal Nuclei by an Eggshell Protein". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 49 (30): 5135–5137. doi:10.1002/anie.201000679. PMID 20540126.