Scientists from the University of Warwick and the University of Sheffield (England) have concluded that the hen existed before the egg because a protein found in the ovaries of hens, ovocledidine-17 (OC-17) , plays a key role in the formation of the eggshell.
The finding, they say, is sufficient evidence to determine not only that the hen came before the egg, but also that the first hen was possibly not born from an egg of the same species .
"Our study makes us stop for a moment and think if the egg from which the first hen hatched was really a chicken egg," says Mark Rodger of the University of Warwick. In this sense, the researchers suggest that there had to be an embryo that became the first hen , although they point out that the egg laid by its parents "would not have the appearance of a hen's egg as we know it today."
However, Rodger has acknowledged that the dilemma of which came first, the chicken or the egg, "will never have a definitive answer in the sense that it cannot be verified according to scientific methods."
The discovery of the role that the OC-17 protein plays in the formation of the eggshell will also allow advances in the field of medicine when creating synthetic bones and implants more similar to the real ones.
