The story
In 1811, Joseph Anning found the skull of a strange reptile in the cliffs of Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast, and his younger sister Mary, about twelve, found the rest of the skeleton the next year. The animal was about 5 m long and was soon named Ichthyosaurus, fish lizard. The Annings sold it to the lord of the manor, and it went on to the collection of William Bullock and then the British Museum. The family sold fossils to support itself after their carpenter father died.
Mary kept hunting. In December 1823 she found the first nearly complete Plesiosaurus, described by William Conybeare and Henry De la Beche in 1824, and later discovered the first British pterosaur, Dimorphodon, in 1828. Cuvier at first doubted that the plesiosaur was genuine. Anning lacked formal education and was not admitted to the Geological Society, but geologists such as Buckland and De la Beche visited her shop, and her work on coprolites, which are fossil droppings, showed what such animals ate. Her fossils helped establish that whole worlds of animals had disappeared.
Why it mattered
- Anning's finds helped persuade scientists that large animals had gone extinct, which paved the way for Darwin's work.
- Her work on coprolites and stomach contents helped begin the study of ancient diets and food webs.
- Her story shows how much early science relied on skilled collectors who were denied credit.
Sources
- Mary Anning: The unsung hero of fossil discovery Natural History Museum
- Mary Anning fossils: Seven highlights from the Jurassic Coast Natural History Museum
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