Ashton Jimenez
Writing in The Sciences
Michael Coppola
May, 2nd, 2019
Summary and Response #1
he article the patient The Patient Had Bone Cancer. The Diagnosis Arrived 240 Million Years Too Late, by Asher Elbein is about an ancient case of cancer found in a prehistoric animal. Yara Haridy, unlike many paleontologists, sought out fossil remains that were not perfect in order to gain insight on the lives of prehistoric animals. Haridy analyzed the femur of the prehistoric Pappochelys and found that it had incorrectly healed from some kind of injury. Through further analysis she found that the injury could not have been inflicted externally so she came to the conclusion that it was the result of an illness. Haridy and her team came to the conclusion that the Pappochelys was afflicted with a rare form of bone cancer called osteosarcoma, a cancer the affects humans today…
This article is a paradigm shift because it’s trying to shift general misconceptions regarding cancer. Medically it is known that cancer is a complex illness caused by a variety of sources, but publically Cancer can be seen as a new illness caused by a degradation of health standards. Cancer is not a new issue and this study found that, “..can be turned off and on.” ( Haridy). By studying cancer in prehistoric creatures that predate the existence of mammals can give the scientific community insight into the disease and its history. This also isn’t the only finding that suggests cancer is older than most people think. While this isn’t necessarily a paradigm shift in the scientific field it has the potential to be a paradigm shift in the general public’s perception of the deadly disease.
