What came first, the chicken or the egg?

The chicken or the egg causality dilemma is an ancient philosophical conundrum about the origins of life. There’s no definitive scientific answer, but here are some logical perspectives on it:

• Eggs pre-dated chickens. Dinosaurs and other bird predecessors laid eggs long before the first chicken existed. So in an evolutionary sense, eggs came before chickens.
• The first modern chicken had to have hatched from an egg. The chicken egg containing the genetic mutation that made the first modern chicken would have had to come before the chicken itself.
• Eggs in general pre-date chicken eggs. Hard-shelled eggs existed hundreds of millions of years before chickens evolved. The first chicken egg was just a variation of the existing egg.
• The chicken egg requires a chicken to lay it. So the egg relies on the pre-existence of the chicken. In that sense, the chicken came before their eggs.
• It’s a continuous cycle with no clear beginning. Chickens evolved from non-chickens over time, there was no first chicken that suddenly existed. So chickens and their eggs evolved together interdependently.

Overall there’s no definitive answer since it depends on whether you are talking about chickens or eggs in general. The view also shifts based on if you mean evolutionary or creationist origins. In either case, chickens and eggs exist today in an endless cycle of interdependent reproduction, with no clear beginning that can be identified. The dilemma illustrates the complexity of tracing the origins of life.

Kevin Harrington Partner

Kevin Harrington is a Partner at Exit Factor UK, helping SME owners increase business value & build a rewarding, well-planned exit. Former CMO at BBC Worldwide.

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