A Sri Lanka hen has given birth to a chick without an egg, in a new twist on the age-old question of whether the chicken or the egg came first。

今日斯里兰卡一只母鸡没有经过孵蛋就生下了一只小鸡，为先有鸡还是先有蛋的古老问题提出了新的想法。

Instead of passing out of the hen's body and being incubated outside, the egg was incubated in the hen for 21 days and then hatched¹ inside the hen. The chick is fully² formed and healthy, although the mother has died。

这只小鸡没有经历常规的在母体外的孵化过程，受精卵在母鸡体内发育21天，在体内直接完成孵化。小鸡发育完全身体健康，但母鸡在分娩后就死亡了。

The government veterinary officer in the area said he had never seen anything like it before. PR Yapa, the chief veterinary officer of Welimada, where it took place, examined the hen's carcass。

该领域的政府兽医官表示以前从来没有见过这样的案例。此事件发生在斯里兰卡的巴杜勒县，该县的首席兽医官检查了母鸡的尸体。

He found that the fertilised egg had developed within the hen's reproductive system, but stayed inside the hen's body until it hatched. A post-mortem conducted on the hen's body concluded that it died of internal³ wounds。

检查结果发现，受精卵在母鸡的生殖器官中孵育而成，但直到孵化出来前都一直在母鸡体内。对母鸡尸体的解剖发现它死于内伤。

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says that the story has made headlines in Sri Lanka, with the Sri Lankan Daily Mirror's concluding: "The chicken came first; not the egg."

BBC驻斯里兰卡首都科伦坡的记者Charles Haviland表示这一事件在斯里兰卡成为了头条新闻，斯里兰卡《每日镜报》调侃道：先有鸡还是先有蛋这个古老问题有答案了。当然是先有鸡，后有蛋！