This is a drawing of the prehistoric species Plesiosaurus, discovered by the paleontologist Mary Anning in 1823. Anning was a working-class, uneducated person who became one of England’s premier fossil scholars, but struggled her whole life — financially and professionally — because of her gender and class.
Anning grew up on the southern coast of Dorset in a town called Lyme Regis, now recognized as part of the “Jurassic Coast” for its remarkable preservation of dinosaur and other prehistoric fossils in the limestone and shale cliffs facing the sea. Mary found the body of an Ichthyosaurus when she was only 12. She began to sell the fossils she found to scientist collectors, but eventually became intellectually enamored herself of the subject of what came to be called paleontology.
At the time, European scientists didn’t believe that new species ever came about, or that any species would go extinct. Both ideas seemed to contradict the religious belief that God had created a perfect world. Anning — a devout Christian her entire life — discovered and categorized a great many fossils which helped correct these misassumptions. She also figured out that the so called “bezoares” found along the coast were actually fossilized dung, aka coprolites.
Mary Anning was not allowed to join the British Geological Society of London because she was a woman. Furthermore, many times male scientists failed to give her credit when they presented fossils she had discovered and reflected upon. She died at 47 of breast cancer after a lifetime largely spent in poverty, but by that point she had also accumulated a number of prominent scientist friends who spoke highly of her, worked with her, and even financially took care of her.
A commemorative statue of Mary Anning is due to be unveiled this May of 2022 in her Dorset homeland county.
Sources: Motherlands: a Journey through Earth’s Extinct Worlds, by Thomas Halliday. Wikipedia
