Eggless Chick Born in Sri Lanka
A hen in Sri Lanka has reportedly given birth to a live chick which may offer an answer to the age-old question of which came first, the chicken or the egg.
The Sri Lankan hen is said to have had the egg inside her body as it matured. In the more common instances of egg laying the egg would be incubated outside of the hen's body for a few weeks before it hatched.
However, in this case the egg was not laid and instead was incubated inside the body of the hen before it hatched. The egg incubated for 21 days before breaking free of the egg while still inside the hen.
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Reports indicated that the chick was fully developed and as healthy as is to be expected. Unfortunately, the hen died from its injuries.
An official in the Sri Lankan governmental veterinarian office in the area explained to local media that he had never seen or heard of anything like this ever occurring, only to add that the question has always been debated.
PR Yapa, the chief veterinary officer of Welimada, the area where the incident took place was the individual responsible for examining the hen's carcass during the autopsy.
In his report he concluded that he discovered that the hen's fertilized egg had in fact developed within the hen's reproductive system, however he was unable to determine the reason that the fertilized egg stayed within the hen's body before it hatched after incubation.
The autopsy that was performed on the hen's carcass revealed that the hen was otherwise healthy and that it had died due to internal injuries sustained during the hatching of the chick.
The story has created quite a stir in the local region with the Sri Lankan Daily Mirror's headline stating: "The chicken came first; not the egg."
