Scientists finally have answer to age-old question about whether chicken or egg came first

The chicken and egg debate is one that has gone on for years, but it seems like scientists have settled the matter once and for all.

For those not familiar with the debate that seems to go on and on, working out which came first has been difficult to nail down and now even scientists have waded in.

You need a chicken to get an egg, but then chickens come from an egg, so without the egg there's no chicken... but you need a chicken to get the egg, and so it goes on.

Greek philosopher Plutarch discussed the question in an essay called Symposiacs in around 100AD, and well it's never really been answered.

Yet now we can finally but the debate to an end, and the scientists have spoken.

Did the egg come first, or did the chicken? (Getty Stock Images)

Scientists have shared their definitive answer, as they reveal that the egg must have come first.

Eggs have been around for billions of years, whereas chickens as a species are believed to have only been around for just 10,000 years.

One theory is that birds have evolved and descended from reptiles, meaning the first ever bird would have come from an egg - but it might have been a reptile egg.

The BBC Wildlife magazine website has consulted with scientists who shared that 'any animal that is multicellular and practises sex produces what are properly called eggs'.

"Though their name means ‘first animal’, protozoans are not animals and don’t produce eggs. Exactly what the first true animal was is unknown. What we do know is that it lived around one billion years ago deep in the Precambrian – and it produced eggs."

However, a piece debating the topic in New Scientist believes the chicken is the winner.

It's chased the lineage of the humble chicken right back and believes the wild ancestor of chickens is thought to be a tropical bird still living in the forests of Southeast Asia called the red junglefowl.

Chickens have been around for over 10,000 years. (Getty Stock Images)

Over the years the red junglefowl will have evolved and then become the more common chicken that we know and see on farms.etc

Writing on the debate of chickens vs eggs, New Scientists has it's own stance as it breaks it down and states: "In theory, at some point two junglefowl bred and their offspring was genetically different enough from the species of its parents to be classified as a chicken.

"This chicken would have developed within a junglefowl egg and only produced the very first chicken’s egg on reaching maturity. Looked at this way, the chicken came first."

So really we're still none the wiser, and there's strong arguments for both sides here.

• Scientists think they've finally solved why women live longer than men
• Scientists reveal ‘consent’ question you should ask your baby before changing nappy
• Scientists finally know why girls are getting their periods at a younger age now
• Scientists finally discover why they think some women get severe morning sickness when pregnant