Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The millennium problem has been solved!

Image by Andy M. from Pixabay

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

This is an age-old question, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Philosophically unsolvable, it has puzzled thinkers for centuries. I remember watching a cross talk show many years ago. The two comedians asked and answered questions, and their words were witty, which constantly aroused laughter, but in the end they still couldn’t come to a definite conclusion whether the chicken or the egg came first.

But from a biological point of view, the answer should be that the egg came first.

这是因为随着时间的推移，进化是通过动物体内遗传物质的微小、渐进的变化来进行的。在通过自然选择或人工选择后，经过一段时间后，动物的特征就会很明显。以野生的火狐狸为例，人们做过实验来去掉咬人和逃跑的野性，通过只选择野性少和对人友好的一小部分狐狸来繁殖后代。经过35代约40年的时间，家养的火狐狸就诞生了。当然从鸟进化到鸡经过了很长的时间。在很遥远过去的某个时刻，一只不完全是鸡的鸟经过遗传物质的微小变化产下了一个包含基因突变的蛋，从而产生了世界上第一只真正的鸡。这意味着第一个孵化出鸡的蛋来自一只不完全是鸡但非常非常接近鸡的鸟。