What came first? Virus or cell?

[Ayeshaa]

what came first? the virus or the cell?

I'm assuming the cell came first because in order for a virus to exist, it has to feed off the cell, but then when I looked on the internet, some people said the virus came first because of RNA, and RNA has existed way before DNA has.

[levaninep]

i think firts was cell. because virus can not to live without feeding and it feeds by cell, so it coudnot be first. first was bacteria not cell or virus.

[JackBean]

first were probably nucleic acids, then cells and then parasitic nucleic acids AKA viruses

[JorgeLobo]

Agree with Jack. Please don;t consder it was one or the other of present day forms. Likely origins went back further to more "primitive" forms of "life."

[JackBean]

The question is, in other words - which came first, host or parasite? Of course the host had to be here first, but that doesn't mean that non-parasitic species did not evolve earlier. Think about mammals and nematodes. Of course the nematodes evolved earlier than mammals. But the parasitic nematodes had to evolve after mammals.