Mary Anning, the Greatest Fossilist the World Has Ever Known

A little girl walks along the beach in Lyme Regis in England. She collects what she finds and runs home to show her father who is as interested and excited in the find as his daughter.

But those are not seashells she has found. They are fossils.

That little girls was Mary Anning and the world has just passed the 1800 year mark.

Mary Anning grew up in the seaside town of Lyme Regis in Dorset, England. Her father was a cabinetmaker who was also an amateur archeologist. He found many fossils in the coastal cliffsides near their home and he sold the fossils to tourists to supplement his income. He also passed along his ability to find fossils, as well as his knowledge about fossils and his passion for finding them, to his wife and daughter.

Paleontology, the study of a time period based primarily upon fossils, was a very young science when Mary was born in 1799 to Richard and Mary Anning. The couple had ten children but only Mary and her brother, Joseph, survived into adulthood.

Mary's father died when she was only eleven years old, leaving the family destitute. Even though they continued gathering and selling the fossils they found, they lived in poverty.

Lt. Col. Thomas Birch was a professional fossil collector. When he learned of the family's situation, he held an auction to sell his fossil collection and gave the money he raised to the Anning family. He could not bear to think of this family, who had discovered so many fossils for the scientific community, living in squander.

Between the ages of ten and twelve years old, Anning discovered the first specimen of Ichthyosaurus (a giant marine reptile that resembled fish and dolphins) known by the London scientific community. It was a well-preserved and nearly complete skeleton of the "fish-lizard." Although her brother, Joseph, had discovered part of its remains, it was Mary's dedication in fossil hunting which provided the family with some means of income.

Anning also discovered the first Plesiosaur, which was a type of carnivorous aquatic reptile. It was said these animals resembled a snake threaded through the shell of a turtle, even though they had no shell. This find earned Anning the respect of a fossilist within the scientific community.

Anning was an astute observer and very familiar with her surrounding area. She knew where fossils could most likely be found after a storm. She also became very experienced in the removal of fossils without doing any damage, knowing that the better preserved the fossil, the better the sale.

It was hard for most scientists to believe that a woman deprived of education and from such a poor background would have the ability to find fossils, let alone to identify them as well.

Anning received a visit from Lady Harriet Sivester, widow of the former Recorder of the City of London. Lady Sivester wrote in her diary after meeting with Anning, ". . . the extraordinary thing in this young woman is that she has made herself so thoroughly acquainted with the science that the moment she finds any bones she knows to what tribe they belong. She fixes the bones on a frame with cement and then makes drawings and has them engraved. . . It is certainly a wonderful instance of divine favour - that this poor, ignorant girl should be so blessed, for by reading and application she has arrived to that degree of knowledge as to be in the habit of writing and talking with professors and other clever men on the subject, and they all acknowledge that she understands more of the science than anyone else in this kingdom." [1]

Anning made other major findings. The first was an anterior sheath and ink bag of a Belemnosepia, which, to the best of my research, is a form of cephalopod or mollusk, such as octopus or squid. But Anning's major discovery were the fossils of a Pterodactylus macronyx, British pterosaur, or a Pterodactyl. Pterodactyls had large leathery wings and very long, pointed beaks and heads. This particular discovery brought Anning national attention.

But the attention didn't keep her from searching for fossils and making more discoveries. Even after finding the Pterodacyl fossils, Anning found the fossil of a Squaloraja, a fish suspected to be an evolutionary step between rays and sharks.

Anning proved to be quite a shrewd businesswoman. She had a retail shop in Lyme Regis which is where she sold the fossils she found. Tourists and scientists alike visited her shop and both groups of people were amazed with Anning's knowledge of her finds. Her knowledge came, not from proper schooling, but from
corresponding with experts in the field about her finds. Annie would often seek out those people and museums who were likely to pay more than the general public for some of her more unusual fossil finds. After a major discovery, such as the Pteradctyl, Anning would start a bidding war.

Later in life, Anning's shop income was supplemented by the British Association for the Advancement of Science by 25 pounds a year. The Geological Society of London granted her an honorary membership. When it was learned that Anning had breast cancer, the Society also gave her funds.

Anning died March of 1847 of breast cancer. She never married and was survived only by her brother and his wife, Amelia.

Anning's name was lost to history, primarily because she was a woman and had no degree. Most of the fossils she found and sold were later donated to museums without proper finding credit being accord to Anning or they were kept in private collections. Anning has gone unrecognized and unacknowledged by the scientific community and the world at large.

Some members of the Geological Society contributed a stained-glass window in her memory to the parish church of St Michael the Archangel. The inscription on the window reads: This window is sacred to the memory of Mary Anning of this parish, who died 9 March AD 1847 and is erected by the vicar and some members of the Geological Society of London in commemoration of her usefulness in furthering the science of geology, as also of her benevolence of heart and integrity of life." [2]

It is also noted (and I will note it here as well) that the notorious tongue twister "She sells seashells on the seashore" was written about Anning.

Sources:
[1] University of California Museum of Paleontology

[2] Wikipedia