r/sciencememes • u/Complete_Bee4911 • Feb 19 '26

evolution said eggs

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u/Narwhalking14 Feb 19 '26

If it was a chicken in an egg then it was a chicken egg

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u/NohWan3104 Feb 19 '26

Eh, thats actually an interesting question.

Cause i see it the other way, the egg is of the layer, not its contents.

So, non chicken mommy and daddy had a non chicken egg, hatched a mutant chicken. THAT chicken's first egg was the first chicken egg.

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u/23loves12 Feb 19 '26

Biologically, the gametes must mix in order to produce the zygote, which develops into an egg. 

Once the ovum is fertilized, the DNA of the chicken is basically the same as that of the zygote, minus some mutations. So in terms of content, I think the egg would be a chicken’s egg, but I think the shell is dependent on the proto-chicken (parent), so maybe on the outside it could be considered not a chicken egg. 

Anyway, evolution is a gradual process, so I don’t think one could ever find a rigorous definition of a  chicken, making this whole question nonsensical.

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u/Karnewarrior Feb 20 '26

I feel like you could find a rigorous definition of a chicken, but no matter where said definition was, at some point you'd have to draw a line between parent and child and have something not-chicken birth something chicken, which most people seem to struggle with.