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submitted 6 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 1 points 6 months ago

Amy is a proto-chicken. Her offspring, Brenda, is the first creature containing the mutation that distinguishes chickens from proto-chickens. Brenda is the first chicken.

Amy's egg couldn't be a chicken egg because there was no such thing as a chicken when she laid it. There would be no such thing as a chicken until Brenda existed, at which time the egg that would become Brenda also became a chicken egg.

The chicken egg could not have come first. The first chicken egg was laid by something that was not quite a chicken, but it didn't become a chicken egg until it had developed into a chicken.

[-] BassTurd@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

You established right away in your first post that Amy is a chicken. That means she came from a chicken egg, but it wasn't a chicken's egg until Amy was a chicken. Until the hatch it was her parent's egg, whatever species they may have been.

I think we're saying the same thing, but in my version, Amy was the first chicken hatched from non chicken parents, and laid the first chicken's egg, birthing Brenda.

In the end, chicken came first, which in turn made the egg, a chicken egg, and coincidentally that chicken's egg.

[-] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

My bad, I was making a different point with that analogy, and I had moved on some time ago. The app I'm using makes it difficult to read back up the thread.

I think we are making similar arguments. I would say that the egg Amy hatched from is the first "chicken's egg", but it is only the first chicken's egg because it belongs to Amy, and it did not exist until chicken-Amy existed, which was some time well after the egg was laid.

Sorry, I'm getting distracted with real life right now.