It's always been the egg. The egg is laid by a proto-chicken and has the genetic mutation required to tip it into the "chicken" classification.
A more useful point of meditation in the modern world is this: which is more important, the design (the egg) or the implementation (the chicken)? Was the chicken "created" when the first egg containing the design for a chicken was laid, or when the first chicken was fully implemented (the egg-laying chicken)?
Obvious parallels to technology, engineering, and startups, etc.