Mary Anning, the woman who helped discover dinosaurs.
Mary Anning was born into a poor family
in Lyme Regis, on the south coast of England, in 1799.
As a child,
she loved strolling across the beach and cliffs with her father.
He was a cabinet maker who earnt extra money by searching for fossils.
He taught Mary everything he knew about them.
They sold the fossils to tourists on a stall outside their house.
But one night, tragedy struck.
While walking over the cliffs, her father slipped and fell.
His injuries were serious.
Weakened from the fall, he died soon after from tuberculosis.
His death left the family devastated and in great debt,
their lives became a struggle for survival.
To help make ends meet,
Mary continued her father’s fossil business without him.
One day, Mary’s brother spotted an unusual skull in the cliffs.
Twelve-year-old Mary searched relentlessly
for the rest of the fossilised bones and dug them out.
She had found the skeleton of a prehistoric reptile –
the ichthyosaur.
The bizarre-looking creature was half fish, half lizard.
Her discovery was evidence
of a highly controversial theory at the time –
extinction.
Many Christians were shocked and confused
as to why God would let a species die out.
Mary was noticed by educated geologists,
who started to come to her for advice.
Later, aged 22, Mary discovered the first plesiosaur skeleton.
Experts thought her new find was a fake,
but eventually, she was proven right.
Women weren’t accepted in the Geological Society in Mary’s time,
so she wasn’t properly credited for her groundbreaking discoveries.
Some men even gave lectures introducing her new finds,
without any mention of the woman who had discovered them.
But Mary remained determined.
She saved up for a shop to sell her fossils
and continued searching for ancient Jurassic creatures.
She studied the rocks so carefully that she could even spot coprolites,
lumps of fossilised poo.
Despite all of this,
she was still not well respected in the local community
and remained very poor.
Things got worse.
Her beloved dog Tray was killed in a landslide
and she became sick with breast cancer.
The medicine she was given made her wobbly.
The locals sneered at her, calling her a drunk.
Sadly, Mary Anning died aged just 47, in 1846.
Only on her death bed did she begin to get the respect she deserved.
The Geological Society of London made her an honorary member,
and began to write about her life’s achievements.
Now, her outstanding contribution to palaeontology is fully recognised
and she is a celebrated woman of science.
It’s often said that the famous tongue twister,
“She sells sea shells on the sea shore”,
was based on the life of Mary Anning.
But it’s hard to say for sure.
The truth is buried in the sands of time.
