Was the Chicken or the Egg First? - Scientists Unravel Age-Old Mystery with 80 Species Study

Egg or Chicken? Science Finally Lays the Question to Rest Getty Images/Westend61

With relative certainty, researchers can say what came first. The chicken – not the egg.

A team of Chinese and British scientists came to this conclusion last year. They discovered in a study that the ancestors of chickens probably gave birth to live offspring, so they did not lay eggs. The same applied to the ancestors of modern reptiles. The team published its findings in the scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

They studied a total of 51 fossil and 29 living species that were either egg-laying or viviparous (give birth to live young).

Viviparous fossils

“When we look at fossils, we find that many of them were viviparous, including Mesozoic marine reptiles like ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs,” says study author Armin Elsler.

And Michael Benton from the Bristol School of Earth Sciences concludes: “Our work and that of many others in recent years have consigned the classic ‘reptile egg’ model of the textbooks to the dustbin.”

Eggs – superfood or cholesterol bombs?

Eggs still have a somewhat bad image. This is due to numerous studies that have classified eggs as a potentially harmful food because of their high cholesterol content. As we know, cholesterol as a blood fat leads to deposits in the vessels and can thus promote heart attacks and strokes.

Nutrition scientists have agreed to stop demonizing eggs outright, but more to rehabilitate them and even recommend them as part of a balanced diet. Even the German Nutrition Society has relaxed its strict rules in this context.

For healthy people who do not have heart disease, too high blood fat levels or diabetes, three to four eggs per week are a guideline. A Swedish study even showed that up to six eggs per week do not increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Those who eat even more eggs over weeks may have to reckon with negative consequences, according to the data analysis.