Mary Anning

Mary Anning
Born	21 May 1799 Lyme Regis, Dorset, England
Died	9 March 1847 Lyme Regis, England
Occupation(s)	Fossil collector and paleontologist
Children	none
Parent(s)	Richard and Mary Anning

Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an early 19th-century British fossil collector, dealer and paleontologist. She earned her living finding and preparing fossils, in the rich Jurassic marine strata at Lyme Regis, Dorset where she lived. She made many important finds. These included the first ichthyosaur skeleton to be correctly identified (Temnodontosaurus platyodon); the first two plesiosaur skeletons ever found (Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus); the first pterosaur skeleton found outside Germany (Dimorphodon macronyx); and some important fish fossils.

Her observations played a key role in the discoveries that belemnite fossils contained fossilized ink sacs, and that coprolites, known as bezoar stones at the time, were fossilized faeces. When the geologist Henry De la Beche painted Duria Antiquior, he based it largely on fossils Anning had found. He sold prints for her benefit. Her work played a key role in the growth of scientific biology in the early 19th century. It showed without question that previously unknown forms of life had existed in the Jurassic seas, all of which were long extinct.

Anning's sex and social class—her parents were poor religious dissenters (non-Anglican Protestants)—prevented her from fully participating in the scientific community of early 19th century England, dominated as it was by rich Anglican gentlemen. Some of the men she worked with and for did give her full credit for her contributions, but some did not.

Although she became well known in geological circles in Britain, Europe, and America, and she made a great deal of money from her best finds, she struggled financially for much of her life. In 1818 Anning came to the attention of Thomas Birch, a rich fossil collector, when she sold him an ichthyosaur skeleton. A year later, he was disturbed by the poverty of the Anning family, which was at the point of having to sell their furniture to make ends meet. Birch arranged for the sale by auction of his own fossil collection, and the proceeds (some £400) were given to the Annings. Besides providing much needed funds, the public auction raised the profile of the Anning family in the geologic community. Later, she lost £300 (a huge sum) in 1835 on unwise investments, but was saved by a government pension of £25 per year. This was organised by another of her friends, William Buckland. Her early death was caused by breast cancer.