Who was Mary Anning?

Mary Anning was an incredible woman and made significant breakthroughs in the study of palaeontology. This amazing woman collected, observed and studied fossils all her life.

[Click on the image to the left to find out more about Mary Anning from the Lyme Regis Museum which also has a link to a BBC slide show about her and her work.]

Early life

Sadly, in Mary's early life, she had several traumatic experiences. At the age of 18 months, her three carers were struck by lightning but Mary miraculously survived unharmed. Later in her life (at the age of 10), her father died of tuberculosis and a fall. She had spent much of her childhood with her father collecting 'curiosities' (fossils) on Charmouth Beach and had developed a love for the sea and for her discoveries. Around the time of her father's death, she was asked to sell a fossil to a woman for half a crown. Soon she was selling fossils more often to support her family.

Discoveries

Mary Anning was known for finding smaller fossils like ammonites and belemnites but she also found many larger fossils during her life. In 1814, her elder brother discovered a large head of an unknown creature. Later, Mary went back to the site of the discovery to find the rest of the skeleton intact. By 1821, she had found three more intact ichthyosaur skeletons. But, in 1823, she made another remarkable find in paleontology history: she found the first plesiousayr skeleton intact. At first, other paleontologists claimed that it was a fake, though, over time, they realised they had made a big mistake.

Even though she sadly died in 1847, her finds laid the foundations for Darwin's theory of evolution. She is now widely recognised as an exceptional scientist who displayed excellent skills of observation in recording her discoveries that have been very useful to subsequent scientists.