The Dinosaur Egg: That’s What Came Before the Chicken

In this video, you can see how scientists have upended one of our most basic assumptions about the permanency of transformation — by unboiling an egg.

Let's look at another way researchers pulled the veil aside to reveal a new layer of reality. This time, it's in the form of a riddle. Which came first: the chicken or the egg? According to research published in the journal Paleontology in 2008, we need look no further than dinosaurs to answer the question.

Long before a hen settled into her nest to deposit her eggs, a theropod, a carnivorous dinosaur, built nests for her brood, and researchers have the fossilized dinosaur nest with five partial eggs to prove it. The nest dates back 77 million years.

So the fact that our modern feathered friends are descended from dinosaurs, like the troodontid (aka the conductor from “Dinosaur Train”), and troodontids were nesting at least 150 million years ago gives us the technical answer of the dinosaur preceding the chicken — and the chicken egg.

Causality dilemma solved! And if you want to dig deeper into the mutations that paved the way from dino to chick, have at it. 

In the meantime, find out about the scientific sorcery behind unboiling an egg in this video, if you haven't already.