h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Neither the chicken nor the egg came first: it was the dinosaur. Some kind of freak-DNA-changing-mutaion-disease occurrence permanently reduced these noble giant lizards to squarking birds within a generation. When each batch of eggs hatched, the mother dinosaurs were amazed by what they saw, leading them to severe mental problems and an early death as a genus.

Same thing thing happened when I saw my own offspring.....hehhheh.

Sure they'd be upset to hear you say that! Sounds harsh, but then I haven't met them.

that's what happens when you evolve far enough that you stop eating your young. then we wouldn't have chicken or eggs. Don't even ask where we would be then, believe me, humans would find some other animal to kentucky fry or make salad sandwiches out of. (mmmm kentucky fried eel)

Post 1: Researcher 740739; egg laying goes back at least to proterozoic and probably archaeozoic times. The problem of mental traumatization touched on all through this thread is an important one. I remember a conversation with an individual who had trouble accepting evolution. I pointed out that no child is ever quite like the parent, and that the differences are evolution.

Post 4: unsupernic; I've often thought that emotional discomfort with the thought of a common ancestry with all terrestrial living things including those used for food accounts for a great deal of the resistance to the idea of evolution. The thought makes people feel guilty and they go into denial in order to cope with those guilt feelings. On the other hand, even the branching of the plant kingdom from the animal kingdom doesn't go farther back in time than the archaeozoic, though the modern plant groups don't originate until the cambrian.

Favorite witticism of my own: How do you tell the difference between a coelenterate in its simplest and most primeval form, and a mold spot?

Answer, the coelenterate wriggles.

By the by, deep fried jellyfish umbels... not bad. Kind of like pork rinds. I probably shouldn't have to caution anyone to avoid the stinging tendrils.