As I perused some threads of this forum I found a reference to the old questions of Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I don’t know where, but some time in the past I read a good logical answer to this question. Note that my version may contain technical errors not present in the original. Blame me, not the original.
Evolution, with regards to one individual at a time, is when the descendent obtains an inheritable trait that is not possessed by the parent. The traits of each individual are established when the sperm and egg join and they have completed their genetic combination to form the complete set of DNA within the egg. After this process completes, the DNA, or the traits, of the individual are set for life.
Therefore, the new trait is present first in the egg. Although the dividing line between the very first chicken and the something else that was its immediate predecessor is certainly a very broad and fuzzy one, the individual that was first worthy of the name chicken became worthy of that name as an egg.
Therefore the egg came first.
This message has been edited by bkelly, 08-18-2005 06:16 PM
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