Which Came First? Eggs Before Chickens, Scientists Now Say

[tekisui]

A rare fossilized dinosaur nest helps answer the conundrum of which came first, the chicken or the egg, two paleontologists say.

The small carnivorous dinosaur sat over her nest of eggs some 77 million years ago, along a sandy river beach. When water levels rose, Mom seems to have fled, leaving the unhatched offspring.

Researchers have now studied the fossil nest and at least five partial eggs. The nest is a mound of sand that extends about 1.6 feet (half a meter) across and weighs as much as a small person, or about 110 pounds (50 kg).

"Some characteristics of the nest are shared with birds, and our analysis can tell us how far back in time these features, such as brooding, nest building, and eggs with a pointed end, evolved - partial answers to the old question of which came first, the chicken or the egg," said researcher Francois Therrien, curator of dinosaur paleoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20081114/sc_livescience/whichcamefirsteggsbeforechickensscientistsnowsay

[amdezurik]

1. um, well DUH

Since I had seen when I was but a little boy dino eggs at meuseums and such that has never been a "conumdrum" to me except when talking with "creationst" morans...

[htuttle]

2. Um, duh. I thought the answer to that was always sort of obvious

Of course the egg was first. It's just that it was laid by something that wasn't quite a chicken yet. (ie., the first chicken egg's parent was an 'almost-chicken')

Not to mention the fact that reptiles lay eggs too, but I've always thought that the question was referring to chicken eggs in particular.

[DireStrike]

3. I'm so sick of that stupid question

A chicken-like creature laid an egg from which hatched a chicken. The egg came first. Couldn't have happened another way. Unless you wanna say god did it, there's really nothing to argue with.

I understand the article is just using it to catch interest, but I've seen one too many of these lame lead-ins and I'm really, really tired of it.

[dipsydoodle]

4. The true answer is neither

It's bacon because it takes longer to fry.

[nichomachus]

5. You said 77 million years ago -- I think you meant 6,000 years ago

After all, the earth is only 6,000 years old.

Sarah Palin told me -- and she would never lie.

[TlalocW]

6. Half-full!

Oh, sorry, wrong question.

TlalocW