British fossil collector and palaeontologist (1799–1847)
Mary Anning
Anning with her dog, Tray, painted before 1842; the hill Golden Cap can be seen in the background
Born
(1799-05-21)21 May 1799
Lyme Regis, Dorset, England
Died
9 March 1847(1847-03-09) (aged 47)
Lyme Regis, Dorset, England
Resting place
St Michael's Church, Lyme Regis 50°43′32″N2°55′54″W / 50.725471°N 2.931701°W / 50.725471; -2.931701
Occupations
Fossil collector
palaeontologist
Known for
Fossil hunting
Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an English fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist who became known around the world for the discoveries she made in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset in Southwest England. Anning's findings contributed to changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth.
Anning searched for fossils in the area's Blue Lias and Charmouth Mudstone cliffs, particularly during the winter months when landslides exposed new fossils that had to be collected quickly before they were lost to the sea. Her discoveries included the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton when she was twelve years old;[1] the first two nearly complete plesiosaur skeletons; the first pterosaur skeleton located outside Germany; and fish fossils. Her observations played a key role in the discovery that coprolites, known as bezoar stones at the time, were fossilised faeces, and she also discovered that belemnite fossils contained fossilised ink sacs like those of modern cephalopods.
Anning struggled financially for much of her life. As a woman, she was not eligible to join the Geological Society of London and she did not always receive full credit for her scientific contributions. However, her friend, geologist Henry De la Beche, who painted Duria Antiquior, the first widely circulated pictorial representation of a scene from prehistoric life derived from fossil reconstructions, based it largely on fossils Anning had found and sold prints of it for her benefit.
Anning became well known in geological circles in Britain, Europe, and America, and was consulted on issues of anatomy as well as fossil collecting. The only scientific writing of hers published in her lifetime appeared in the Magazine of Natural History in 1839, an extract from a letter that Anning had written to the magazine's editor questioning one of its claims. After her death in 1847, Anning's unusual life story attracted increasing interest.
^Eylott, Marie-Claire. "Mary Anning: The Unsung Hero of Fossil Discovery". Natural History Museum. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
attracted increasing interest. MaryAnning was born in Lyme Regis in Dorset, England, on 21 May 1799. Her father, Richard Anning (c.1766–1810), was a cabinetmaker...
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final novel Persuasion in the town. Between 1811 and her death in 1847 MaryAnning, a geological pioneer, found and identified Jurassic marine reptile fossils...
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extinct chimaeriform fish from the Lower Jurassic of Europe first found by MaryAnning in 1829. Fossils of S. polyspondyla have been found in Lower Jurassic-aged...
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