“Which came first the chicken or the egg?” is one of the most famous riddles of all time. Its a popular riddle because its such a simple question, yet so baffling.

The recent discovery of a rare fossilized dinosaur nest may share some light on this question, according to Francois Therrien, the curator of dinosaur paleoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada.

This rare fossilized dinosaur’s nest, which was likely laid by a small carnivorous dinosaur around 77 million years ago, consists of a mound of sand approximately 1.6 feet wide and weighing around 110 lbs. The nest and eggs are remarkably similar to the modern bird’s nest and eggs, pointing to the fact that modern birds likely evolved from a branch of small, meat-eating dinosaurs known as Maniraptorans.

Essentially, this tells us that the answer to the question “which came first the chicken or the egg”, is that the egg most definitely came first since these dinosaurs were creating bird-like nests and laying eggs well before any bird (including chickens) had evolved. Of course, this doesn’t actually prove that chicken eggs came before chickens, but if you take the riddle literally, you do have a definitive answer: the egg.

Unfortunately, this evidence doesn’t definitely answer the question of whether the chicken egg evolved before the chicken, though it does confirm that bird-like eggs were around before chickens. Was the egg that hatched the first modern chicken exactly the same as a modern chicken egg, or did a non-chicken undergo a mutation that caused it to lay the first egg that hatched a chicken? That’s still a question we still don’t have a definitive answer for.

Riddles have been asked since ancient times. Today, we consider riddles a form of amusement, but long ago people took very seriously.

Ancient oracles often answered questions and gave advice in the form of riddles. Kings used riddles to send each other secret messages. Those serious riddles were also called enigmas.

Greeks and Romans held riddle contests at their fests and gave prizes to the winners. According to some legends, a man’s life sometimes depended on his giving the correct answer to a riddle.

Riddles even appear in the Bible. At Samson’s wedding feast, a riddle contest was held and the Queen of Sheba asked King Solomon a number of riddles.

Jokes are as old as the spoken word. In every country in the world and in every age of history, people have told funny stories to make one another laugh.

In the Middle Ages in Europe the court jesters, or fools, amused the king and his court with jokes and tricks. At first, court jesters sang of brave deeds, or jesters. But as time went by, they became tellers of jokes and funny stories.

Jokes told by jesters began to appear in collections, or jest books. One of the best-known English jest books was “Tarlton’s Jests,” which appeared about 1611. One of the most famous joke-tellers in history was Joe Miller, an English actor who lived from 1684 to 1738.

Asking riddles is the world’s oldest quiz game. A riddle is a puzzling statement or question. Sometimes in the form of a rhyme. Riddles also are called conundrums.

Some riddles are based on a pun, or play on words, like this familiar one: “When is a door not a door?” “When it’s a jar.” Other riddles point out a likeness between two very different things. “Why is a pencil like a funny story?” “They both have a point.”

Nobody knows who first began to ask riddles, but the custom is a very ancient one. In fact, long ago people took riddles very seriously. Ancient oracles often answered questions and gave advice in the form of riddle and kings used them to send secret messages to one another. These serious riddles also were called enigmas.

Greeks and Romans held riddle contests at their feasts and gave laurel wreaths to the winners. According to some ancient legends, a man’s life sometimes depended upon his giving the correct answer to a riddle.

Riddles even appear in the Bible. At Samson’s wedding feast a riddle contest was held, and the Queen of Sheba asked King Solomon a number of riddles.

In many parts of the world, riddles are an important part of a child’s upbringing. Some people think that quessing riddles sharpens a child’s wits. There are people who believe that guessing a riddle right helps to make the crops grow.

In one famous Greek myth, Oedipus, the hero, solved a riddle asked by the Sphinx, a monster who was half lion and half woman. Once the riddle of Sphinx was solved, she was destroyed.