Throughout history, evolution has been a key factor in how the species that inhabit our planet progress, and develop in different ways. Many scientists have contributed to the theory that avians evolved from ancient dinosaurs. Eventually, their theory was proven correct. Modern-day birds evolved from a group of dinosaurs called “theropods.” The theropods from which they developed were smaller in size, unlike the well-known Tyrannosaurus-Rex. Their size does not matter, though. For we have their existence, and only their existence, to be grateful for our current species of avians. 

    Take the chicken, for example. Most of us can recall hearing the ever-perplexing riddle: all chickens come from an egg, and all chicken-eggs come from a chicken. So, who came first? The chicken, or the egg? Now, recall the information included above. All avians have been evolving since the time of the dinosaurs. According to the National Institutes of Health, the species that chickens directly evolved from, sharing the same genetic profile, was a red junglefowl subspecies. The divergence of these two species took place approximately 8,700 years ago. 

    Somewhere along the genetic-line, there was a species similar to the chicken we know today, and later there was one that was genetically-identical. Before the first avian that was as close to a modern-chicken as one could get, there was a bird that wasn’t. Via natural selection, and chanceful breeding, that one bird that was not similar bred with one that was closer. The offspring then bred with another, and then produced more offspring. This process occurred quite some time before the final result came about: an avian, relatively identical to the chicken, laid an egg. Within that egg, was a species of bird named gallus gallus domesticus, or, the chicken. 

    Therefore, by technicality, the egg came first. The egg came from a species virtually identical, but not entirely, to the chicken. The egg it produced, after random breeding, was as genetically-identical to the chicken as a bird can get. Right? 

    Take into consideration the usage of the word, “technicality.” Over a decade ago, a group of researchers discovered that in order for a chicken eggshell to develop, there must be a protein from the mother’s ovaries present, called “ovocledidin.” Ah, darn. Theory debunked. Chicken came first. You’d think, but actually, no. This proves nothing. Only that the egg requires a protein to develop. That does not mean that the chicken came first. The aforementioned answer for the riddle still stands. Upon moderate contemplation, the answer and concepts are quite simple: how could a species be present before its egg? Because the chicken-egg came from a non-chicken species. 

    This work of writing was not intended to be an essay based upon a theory. The intention was to solve an age-old riddle. Perhaps one day a future reader of this text will find a way to prove it wrong, perhaps they won’t. And so, to conclude this piece, there is only one sentence appropriate enough to do the honors. The egg came first.