[MD] Chickens before Eggs?

[John Carl]

Hi Dan,


>
> Hi Arlo and John
>
> A couple weeks ago, this article ran in the NYT... not sure if anyone
> else read it (Platt was always good about reading the Times) but it
> seems related to this discussion:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/science/15evolve.html?ref=science
>
> Dan comments:
>
> Of particular interest is this snip:
>
> "Surprisingly, they’ve found that a lot of the genetic equipment for
> building an animal was in place long before the animal kingdom even
> existed."
>
> Dan comments:
>
> What the researchers seem to be saying is that the blueprints for
> animals were in place long before animals. So one possible answer to
> the old conundrum of what came first: chicken or egg, might be
> answered now: the chicken came first!
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Dan
>

Or rather, the idea of chickeness (complete with egg-laying capability) came
before either chickens or eggs.


But it's hard to talk about the idea of chickeness, without
anthropomorphising the only kind of "ideas" that we humans understand -
those which are the result of human thought.  But obviously, chickeness as
an idea is something which came before human thought.

But all in all, a fascinating article and one that I finds support my
contention with Arlo, so thanks for that Dan.

Slow John