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this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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Asklemmy
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"Proto chicken" in this context refers to a genetic ancestor of the chicken. An egg hatches into the exact same species as the egg itself, but the egg is genetically different from the mother that laid the egg, and in this thought experiment, we're talking about the mother being different enough to call a different species.
So if the mother was genetically different enough to be called a different species then...say it with me... the chicken came first.
No, that's not right. The species transitioned from the proto-chicken to the chicken. Whichever specific individual we call the first chicken started off as (say it with me) an egg. The mother's offspring was different enough to be the first chicken.
Eggs existed long before the chicken, or the species that gave birth to the chicken. What's in that egg doesn't matter, when it's the latest in a long line of eggs, the contents of this egg can't precede eggs.
But you don't know if the proto chicken's offspring is a different kind of chicken until it's hatched. That's how you get a new species.
It's a bit of a Schrodinger's egg situation I guess.
For what it's worth it's possible to test the contents of an egg, but it's moot because it doesn't actually matter when we know. It exists independent of observation.
Species is just a thing we use because we like to put things in boxes. It's all just transitions. The life between species could be described as it's own species if we shifted the scale. Again, boxes.
The baby chicken in the egg is the same chicken that hatches from the egg, but we call it an egg until it hatches. Egg first.
You don't know what's in the egg until it hatches.
so true, it could be bees for all we know.