Alex Panigutti, age 10, of Calgary, Alta., Canada, for his question:

WHICH CAME FIRST, THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG?

This is one of those questions that a number of readers ask every week of the year. So please do not feel sad or mad because your question was not selected. After all, Andy can choose only one for the column. There is no limit to the number of good questions, so please try another. This one will not be answered again until the next generation of young readers gets curious about it.

Maybe you thought this was a trick question, with no sensible answer. Not so. True, an egg comes from a chicken that came from an egg and so on and on back to who knows what or when. Or so it seems. Actually, the original birds came from the dinosaur eggs. So eggs, reptile eggs, came before any of the birds. The chickens came long after the eggs of their remote ancestors.