Mary Anning (1799-1847) made several important discoveries as an amateur fossil collector in the first half of the nineteenth century, including a nearly complete skeleton of an Ichthyosaur. Her findings were key to the development paleontology as a scientific discipline in Britain.

Anning was born on May 21, 1799, in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, the daughter of Richard and Mary Moore Anning. The Annings had nearly ten children, but only Mary and her elder brother Joseph survived to adulthood. On August 19, 1800, Anning narrowly escaped death during a lightening storm. She was one of four people who found shelter under an elm tree in Rack Field near Lyme Regis. Only Anning survived when the tree was struck by lightening. Local legend had it that her intelligence increased significantly after the incident.

Richard Anning made his living as a cabinet maker and carpenter. As a hobby and for extra income, he collected fossils. They were cleaned, polished, and sold to summer tourists. The area in which the Annings lived was rich with fossils. Their hometown, Lyme Regis, was located on the southwest coast of England. About 200 million years earlier, the region had been a sea bottom, where numerous dinosaur remains were fossilized after their death. As sea level fell, these fossils could be found on the beach and above it, especially in the exposed rocky cliffs. Richard Anning was among the first to take advantage of the tourist trade, which
increased as Lyme Regis became a summer resort seaside town in the late 1700s. A popular item was what the locals dubbed “curiosities,” a coiled shell. Later, it was determined that these shells were ammonites, a type of mollusk that lived in the Jurassic Period.

Richard Anning was not the only townsperson to sell collected fossils, but he did interest his whole family in the enterprise, including daughter Mary. Anning had only a limited education, perhaps only a few years in a parish school, but she learned much about the business and the fossils from her father. She developed extraordinary skills in fossil collecting. Her abilities came in handy when Richard Anning died in 1810, leaving his family destitute and in debt for £120. He had been suffering from consumption and had fallen off a cliff before his death. Her brother Joseph was already working as an apprentice to an upholsterer, so the burden of providing an income for the family fell to Anning and her mother. Anning viewed fossil collecting as their only means of support, except for charity given to the family by their local parish from 1811 until 1815.

Discovered Ichthyosaur

In 1811 or 1812, Anning made her first important discovery. Though sources differ on the sequence of events and who was involved, it is clear that Anning was primarily responsible for the finding of a well-preserved, nearly complete skeleton of what came to be called an Ichthysaurus (”fish-lizard”). Some said that her brother Joseph found the skull first, or they found the head together, separate from the rest of the body. Others believed that Anning found the whole fossil on her own. Anning then hired workers to dig out the block in which it was embedded. In any case, the ten-meter (30 feet) long skeleton created a sensation and made Anning famous. She sold it to Henry Hoste Henley, a local collector, for £23. Eventually it made its way to the London Museum of Natural History, and a debate ensued over what to name the creature, a marine reptile with a long body and tail, small limbs, and trim head. It was dubbed Ichthysaurus in 1817.

This discovery was important to science as well as Anning’s livelihood. Though life in the Anning family was difficult for the next decade, Anning herself was developing important skills. She became a good observer, who could provide vital information to scientists. She knew the area well and became expert at predicting where fossils might be found after storms. Anning also became adept at removing the fossils without causing ant damage. Though Anning and her mother were the primary fossil hunters, they was often accompanied by her brother or a local friend, Henry De le Beche, who later became a geologist. The family was also aided by Thomas James Birch, who helped them sell many of their fossils before Anning became an adult.

Discovered Complete Plesiosaurus