Happy Birthday to Mary Anning, the “Mother of Paleontology!” Born on this day in 1799, she hailed from Lyme Regis on the coast of Dorset, England, and grew up collecting fossils. At age 13, she unearthed a skeleton of a giant marine reptile, one of the first ichthyosaurs. In her late twenties, she discovered Dimorphodon, the first pterosaur found outside continental Europe, on the beach cliffs at Lyme Regis. At the time, headlines celebrated Anning and her “flying dragon.” Her discovery proved that these flying reptiles were varied and had a wide range.
Image: Library of Congress


















