Mary Anning, born on 21 May 1799, was a British fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist who became known around the world for the discoveries she made while exploring the marine fossil beds at Lyme Regis in Dorset.
Her discoveries included the first ichthyosaur skeleton correctly identified, which she and her brother Joseph found when she was just twelve years old, the first two plesiosaur skeletons ever found, the first pterosaur skeleton located outside Germany, and important fish fossils.
However, although Anning was well known in geological circles in Britain, Europe, and America, her gender and social class prevented her from fully participating in the scientific community of 19th-century Britain, which was dominated by wealthy Anglican men.
She struggled financially for much of her life. Her family was poor, and as religious dissenters, were subject to legal discrimination. As a woman, she was not eligible to join the Geological Society of London, and she did not always receive full credit for her scientific contributions.
The only scientific writing of hers published in her lifetime appeared in the Magazine of Natural History in 1839 – an extract from a letter that Anning had written to the magazine's editor questioning one of its claims.
It was only in 2010, 163 years after her death in 1847, that the Royal Society included Anning in a list of the ten British women who have most influenced the history of science.
Anning's life is the subject of Tracy Chevalier's 2009 historical novel, Remarkable Creatures, which was published to coincide with the 210th anniversary of her birth, and another historical novel, Curiosity by Joan Thomas, which was published in March 2010.
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