240 Million Year Old Case of Cancer in Amniotes (“Group That Includes Reptiles, Birds and Mammals”)

Paleontologists have discovered a femur bone with cancer that belonged to a 240 million-year-old ancestor of turtles. The case is the oldest (so far) case of cancer in amniotes, which is the “group that includes reptiles, birds and mammals.” In the past some have suggested that cancer is a side effect of human economic development. Yara Hariday, a current paleontologist and former medical student says: “What makes this really cool is that now we understand that cancer is basically a deeply rooted switch that can be turned on or off, . . . . It’s not something that happened recently in our evolution. It’s not something that happened early in human history, or even in mammal history” (p. D6).

For the full story see:

Asher Elbein. “A Diagnosis 240 Million Years Too Late.” The New York Times (Tuesday, February 12, 2019 [sic]): D6.

(Note: ellipsis added.)

(Note: the online version of the story has the date Feb. 7, 2019 [sic], and has the title “The Patient Had Bone Cancer. The Diagnosis Arrived 240 Million Years Too Late.”)

The academic study co-authored by Hariday on the ancient cancer is:

Haridy, Yara, Florian Witzmann, Patrick Asbach, Rainer R. Schoch, Nadia Fröbisch, and Bruce M. Rothschild. “Triassic Cancer—Osteosarcoma in a 240-Million-Year-Old Stem-Turtle.” JAMA Oncology 5, no. 3 (March 2019): 425-26.