Jurassic Park: First Iteration: New York Summary & Analysis

Dr. Richard Stone heads the Tropical Diseases Laboratory at Columbia University. Medical advances have rendered much of its work mundane, so it surprises the lab when they receive the fragment of an unidentified Costa Rican lizard. Dr. Simpson is away, so his lab sent the lizard over to be screened for potential infectious diseases in the meantime. Someone carefully wrapped the sample to prevent possible biological contamination. And Tina’s drawing has traveled to New York alongside it. Dr. Stone asks a tech to photograph and x-ray the lizard and then run tests on its blood.

The lizard’s blood isn’t reactive to known viral or bacterial antigens, suggesting that its bites won’t sicken people. The toxicity profiles indicate a slight similarity to the venom of the Indian king cobra, but because cross-reactivity among reptiles is common, Dr. Stone fails to include it in the report he sends back to Dr. Guitierrez. Based on Stone’s report, Guitierrez assumes that Dr. Simpson has confirmed his basilisk lizard identification and that the lack of communicable disease means that the lizards present no serious health risks. Reassured of the accuracy of his hypothesis—that deforestation has driven a lizard species into new and alarming contact with humans—Guitierrez assumes the situation will soon settle down.

But at almost the same moment, Costa Rican midwife Elena Morales leaves the side of a newly delivered mother to check on the newborn lying in the next room. She finds three dark green lizards crouched around the bassinette with blood dripping from their noses. She scares them off, but they have eaten through the baby’s face, killing it.