Well, if we are to assume that only unfertilized chicken eggs count as eggs, then the chicken most certainly came first. [/wisearse]Originally Posted by UltimaLimit
Anyway, the flaw about defining "chicken" is that our defenition of what constitutes a chicken is purely subjective, at least in anagenesis (1 population changes enough over time to be considered a new species, instead of 2+ populations going off into distinct evolutionary branches).
Let's make a diagram! The further to your right, the more evolved you are.
Old Pheasant -- New Pheasant -- Old Junglefowl -- New Junglefowl -- Old Chicken -- New Chicken
Each intermediate species can breed with the intermediate species to its left, as well as the intermediate species to its right. New Junglefowl could breed with Old Junglefowl and Old Chickens. Based on the defenition of the word species (that is, 2 animals of different species can not produce fertile offspring), New Junglefowl can be considered the same species as chickens. They can breed with Old Chickens, so New Junglefowl and Old Chickens belong to the same species.
But they aren't the same species, because science mostly arbitrarily decides wether or not an animal has changed enough to warrant a new species. We certainly don't have a time machine to see who can breed with what and make a horribly complex chart detailing at what point New Pheastants couldn't breed with New Junglefowl. Speciation doesn't occur in one generation; it is a large change over time that doesn't suddenly determine if animal A can have babies with animal B.
Now I've completely lost track of what this has to do with the discussion at hand, so I'll back off now.
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