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.
今日斯里蘭卡一只母雞沒有經過孵蛋就生下了一只小雞，為先有雞還是先有蛋的古老問題提出了新的想法。
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 hatched inside the hen. The chick is fully formed and healthy, although the mother has died.
這只小雞沒有經歷常規的在母體外的孵化過程，受精卵在母雞體內發育21天，在體內直接完成孵化。小雞發育完全身體健康，但母雞在分娩后就死亡了。
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.
該領域的政府獸醫官表示以前從來沒有見過這樣的案例。此事件發生在斯里蘭卡的巴杜勒縣，該縣的首席獸醫官檢查了母雞的尸體。
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 internal wounds.
檢查結果發現，受精卵在母雞的生殖器官中孵育而成，但直到孵化出來前都一直在母雞體內。對母雞尸體的解剖發現它死于內傷。
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駐斯里蘭卡首都科倫坡的記者Charles Haviland表示這一事件在斯里蘭卡成為了頭條新聞，斯里蘭卡《每日鏡報》調侃道：先有雞還是先有蛋這個古老問題有答案了。當然是先有雞，后有蛋！
