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NL888 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
What does "as such" mean here? Does it mean "as the first chicken egg"?
(1) What does "as such" mean here? Does it mean "as the first chicken egg"?
(2) What does "the second definition" refer to?
Context:
The theory of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution states that species change over time via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation and sexual reproduction. Since http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) can be modified only before birth, it can be argued that a mutation must have taken place at conception or within an egg such that a creature similar to a chicken, but not a chicken, laid the first chicken eggs. These eggs then hatched into chickens that inbred to produce a living population.[16][17] Hence, in this light, both the chicken and the structure of its egg evolved simultaneously from birds that, while not of the same exact species, gradually became more and more like present-day chickens over time.
However, no one mutation in one individual can be considered as constituting a new species. A http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciation event involves the separation of one population from its parent population, so that interbreeding ceases; this is the process whereby domesticated animals are genetically separated from their wild forebears. The whole separated group can then be recognized as a new species.
The modern chicken was believed to have descended from another closely related species of birds, the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_junglefowl, but recently discovered http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetics evidence suggests that the modern domestic chicken is a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_(biology) descendant of both the red junglefowl and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Junglefowl.[18] Assuming the evidence bears out, a hybrid is a compelling scenario that the chicken egg, based on the second definition, came before the chicken.
This implies that the egg existed before the chicken, but that the chicken egg did not exist until an arbitrary threshold was crossed that differentiates a modern chicken from its ancestors. Even if such a threshold could be defined, an observer would be unlikely to identify that the threshold had been crossed until the first chicken had been hatched and hence the first chicken egg could not be identified as such.
A simple view is that at whatever point the threshold was crossed and the first chicken was hatched, it had to hatch from an egg. The type of bird that laid that egg, by definition, was on the other side of the threshold and therefore not a chicken—it may be viewed as a proto-chicken or ancestral chicken of some sort, from which a genetic variation or mutation occurred that resulted in the egg being laid containing the embryo of the first chicken. In this light, the argument is settled and the egg had to have come first.
More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_or_the_egg
(2) What does "the second definition" refer to?
Context:
The theory of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution states that species change over time via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation and sexual reproduction. Since http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) can be modified only before birth, it can be argued that a mutation must have taken place at conception or within an egg such that a creature similar to a chicken, but not a chicken, laid the first chicken eggs. These eggs then hatched into chickens that inbred to produce a living population.[16][17] Hence, in this light, both the chicken and the structure of its egg evolved simultaneously from birds that, while not of the same exact species, gradually became more and more like present-day chickens over time.
However, no one mutation in one individual can be considered as constituting a new species. A http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciation event involves the separation of one population from its parent population, so that interbreeding ceases; this is the process whereby domesticated animals are genetically separated from their wild forebears. The whole separated group can then be recognized as a new species.
The modern chicken was believed to have descended from another closely related species of birds, the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_junglefowl, but recently discovered http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetics evidence suggests that the modern domestic chicken is a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_(biology) descendant of both the red junglefowl and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Junglefowl.[18] Assuming the evidence bears out, a hybrid is a compelling scenario that the chicken egg, based on the second definition, came before the chicken.
This implies that the egg existed before the chicken, but that the chicken egg did not exist until an arbitrary threshold was crossed that differentiates a modern chicken from its ancestors. Even if such a threshold could be defined, an observer would be unlikely to identify that the threshold had been crossed until the first chicken had been hatched and hence the first chicken egg could not be identified as such.
A simple view is that at whatever point the threshold was crossed and the first chicken was hatched, it had to hatch from an egg. The type of bird that laid that egg, by definition, was on the other side of the threshold and therefore not a chicken—it may be viewed as a proto-chicken or ancestral chicken of some sort, from which a genetic variation or mutation occurred that resulted in the egg being laid containing the embryo of the first chicken. In this light, the argument is settled and the egg had to have come first.
More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_or_the_egg
Top answer
NL888 a hybrid is a compelling scenario that the chicken egg, based on the second definition, came before the chicken. I have no idea what "the second definition" refers to. There must be two definitions of "chicken egg" given in the article somewhere before this excerpt, and if not, then the article is defective to this extent.
- NL888 a hybrid is a compelling scenario that the chicken egg, based on the second definition, came before the chicken.
- I have no idea what "the second definition" refers to.
- There must be two definitions of "chicken egg" given in the article somewhere before this excerpt, and if not, then the article is defective to this extent.
- NL888 hence the first chicken egg could not be identified as such.
- = hence the first chicken egg could not be identified as the first chicken egg.
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NL888a hybrid is a compelling scenario that the chicken egg, based on the second definition, came before the chicken.I have no idea what "the second definition" refers to. There must be two definitions of "chicken egg" given in the article somewhere before this excerpt, and if not, then the article is defective to t
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