One of the scientific questions that has most intrigued experts for centuries is a simple question: What came first, the chicken or the egg? Now, a new study He assures that he has the definitive answer.
Scientists of the University of Geneva (Switzerland) They claim that the building blocks of female reproductive cells, eggs, appeared long before chickens evolved.
The experts analyzed a single-celled species called Chromosphaera perkinskii, that was discovered in 2017 in marine sediments off the coast of Hawaii.
The first signs of its presence on Earth date back more than a billion years, long before the appearance of the first animals. The researchers observed that this species forms multicellular structures that bear striking similarities to animal embryos.
This discovery suggests that the genetic programs responsible for embryonic development—the process by which a fertilized egg becomes an embryo— They were already present before the emergence of animal lifethe experts said.
Therefore, nature would have possessed the genetic tools to “create eggs” long before “inventing chickens”they explained.
One of the authors of the study, Dr. Omaya Dudin said: “Although C. perkinsii “It is a unicellular species, this behavior shows that multicellular coordination and differentiation processes are already present in the species, long before the first animals appeared on Earth.”
Previous research suggests that even hard-shelled eggs, such as those from chickens, are probably They did not emerge until 300 million years ago.
Marine Olivettafirst author of the study, said: “It’s fascinating, a very recently discovered species allows us to go back in time more than a billion years.”
An independent study published earlier this year suggests that the ability to lay eggs regularly, compared to other birds, is what made chickens so attractive to humans thousands of years ago, leading to their domestication already. become the chicken we know today.
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