T H E - O R I G I N - I S S U E

If the egg is not necessarily of any specific type, then it could be said that the egg came first, because other animals had been laying eggs long before chickens existed, such as the dinosaurs. If only an egg that will hatch into a chicken can be considered a chicken egg: then a reconsideration of the original question suggests some animal other than a chicken laid the first chicken egg which contained the first chicken. In this case the chicken egg came before the chicken. If only an egg laid by a chicken can be considered a chicken egg: then a re-consider- ation of the original question suggests the first chicken (which hatched from a non-chicken egg) laid the first chicken egg. In this case the chicken came before the chicken egg. Again, this would not necessarily be a straightforward event.
(Wikipedia, »The Chicken or the Egg« )



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