Scientists Have Found Out That the Egg Appeared Before the Chicken (4 Photos)
What came first, the chicken or the egg? It's an age-old question, because you can't have a chicken without an egg, but you can't have an egg without a chicken. A team of researchers from the University of Geneva has solved this conundrum. 
Scientists have studied a creature called Chromosphaera perkinsii, a single-celled organism discovered in 2017 off the coast of Hawaii. This tiny creature is over a billion years old, and it has settled the debate. 
An ancient species was found to be able to form multicellular structures that are strikingly similar to animal embryos. It turns out that nature had the genetic tools to create eggs even before animals appeared.
"We concluded that the genetic programs responsible for embryonic development - the process by which a fertilized egg turns into an embryo - existed even before the appearance of the animal world," explained the author of the work, Omaia Dudin. 
Chromosphaera perkinsii
The final answer to the "chicken or the egg" question is definitely in favor of the egg. It is worth remembering that there were many species that laid eggs. Chickens as we know them evolved from an animal called the red junglefowl about 10,000 years ago. Dinosaurs laid eggs and roamed the planet much earlier. 
