March 9th...
On This Day in Herstory, March 9th 1847, Mary Anning, an English paleontologist, fossil collector and dealer, known for the significant discoveries she made that changed scientific understanding regarding the history of Earth, died in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England; she was 47 years old.
Mary Anning was born on May 21st 1799, in Lyme Regis, to Mary Moore and Richard Anning. Her father was a carpenter, and both of her parents were amateur fossil hunters. The family was very poor and had nine children, though only Mary and her brother survived into adulthood. Mary was named after an older sister who died in a house fire before mary was born. Mary neary died herself when she was only a baby; she was in a field when a thunderstorm rolled in, the woman holding her sought refuge under a tree, and when a bolt of lightning struck the tree the woman died, yet Mary escaped unharmed. Mary had a few years of education, and taught herself how to read and write. But, much of her time was spent at the beach; her father frequently took her there and taught her the art of collecting fossils. These trips were almost always prosperous, as the cliffs of Lyme Regis date back more than 230 million years, a time when the area was much closer the the equator, and was inhabited by many very large creatures. The family relied on the sale of the fossils they found as a source of income. This income became even more necessary in 1810, when her father, the family’s main breadwinner, fell off a cliff and died. Just a year later, near where her father died, Mary made her first significant discovery; she found the skull, and then entire skeleton of the first known ichthyosaurus specimen.
By 1817, Mary’s discoveries attracted the attention of the British fossil collector Lieut. Col. Thomas Birch, who financially supported the family by purchasing a number of the specimens. Later, he auctioned off many of these items and then donated the proceeds to Mary’s family when they fell on particularly hard times. She taught herself geology, anatomy, paleontology, and scientific illustration; and though she lacked formal education, her discoveries, knowledge of the area, and her skill at fossil classification earned her a good reputation in the male dominated field of paleontology. Her most famous find occured in 1824, when she uncovered the first intact Plesiosaurus skeleton. After the find was authenticated, the scientific community began to recognise the importance of all the fossils that Mary recovered. She became quite the celebrity amongst paleontologists, and collectors; and as a result Lyme Regis was flooded with tourists who came to buy from her. Over her career, she discovered several Ichthyosaurus and plesiosaur skeletons, as well as a pterosaur, which became known as Pterodactylus (or Dimorphodon) macronyx, the first of its kind found outside of Germany. Additionally, she discovered the skeleton of Squaloraja, a fish thought to be a member of a transition group between sharks and rays. Many people believe her discoveries partially contributed to the theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin. Despite her innumerable discoveries, and the name she made for herself, Mary was often not given credit for the items she recovered. The collectors who purchased from her who went on to donate the specimens are often still credited with the item’s discovery. Many journals were written detailing her discoveries at length, yet they never even mention her name.
Towards the end of her life, Mary collected allowances from the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the Geological Society of London, which were set up in recognition of her contributions. At this time she also worked less and less as a result of breast cancer. Mary Anning died on March 9th 1847, she was 47 years old. In 2010 she was recognized as one of the 10 most influential women scientists in British history by the Royal Society.
