Mary Anning

British paleontologist

• Born: May 21, 1799; Lyme Regis, England
• Died: March 9, 1847; Lyme Regis, England

Working as a paleontologist during a period in history when men dominated the scientific community, Mary Anning’s discoveries and contributions greatly expanded scientists’ understanding of the history of the Earth and helped paleontology become a respected scientific field.

Primary field: Earth sciences

Specialties: Paleontology; geology; evolutionary biology

Early Life

Mary Anning was born May 21, 1799, in Lyme Regis, a town on the Dorset Coast in southern England. Lyme Regis is sometimes referred to as the “Jurassic Coast” or “Dinosaur Coast,” because it is rich in fossils. Mary’s father, Richard Anning, was a cabinetmaker and carpenter who earned additional income by selling fossils that washed up near the family home to tourists. He taught his daughter how to find, clean, and sell fossils. Richard and his wife had ten children, but only Mary, the oldest child, and her brother, Joseph, lived to become adults. Richard died in 1810 of consumption and injuries sustained in a fall. Anning was eleven years old when her father died. The family, which had already been poor, was left in debt.

In 1811, Anning and her brother Joseph made a fascinating discovery: the skull and skeleton of an ichthyosaur, a large marine reptile that resembles a dolphin. The specimen was purchased from the family and put on display in a London museum. Despite their youth, Anning and her brother were credited with finding one of the first ichthyosaur skeletons. Early discoveries such as this one paved the way for Anning’s later work as an archaeologist.

Anning received a limited formal education. She learned to read and write in Sunday school at the Congregationalist church her family attended. Anning briefly attended a parish school, but otherwise she had no formal education. In order to supplement the family’s income following her father’s death, she continued to find and sell fossils and seashells. In the early 1820s, the professional fossil collector Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas James Birch, who had been a purchaser of the Anning family’s fossils, organized an auction to sell his personal fossil collection with the proceeds benefiting the Anning family. Birch reasoned that, because the Anning family had found most of the fossils he had purchased, which had contributed greatly to scientific investigation, the family should not have to live in such destitution. By this time, Anning was running the family fossil business. Her brother worked as an apprentice to an upholsterer.

Life’s Work

Although she lived in relative obscurity and went largely without recognition, Anning made several important discoveries and findings that dramatically shaped the lens through which scientists and scholars viewed the creation of the Earth. It is important to remember that one of her most important discoveries, the ichthyosaur, occurred when she was twelve years old. Thereafter, in 1823, Anning discovered the first skeleton of a plesiosaur, a large marine reptile, earning her some note in the burgeoning paleontology community. In 1828, Anning found a pterodactyl, a flying reptile, and, in 1829, a squaloraja, a prehistoric fish. By this time, Anning had purchased a home and storefront, named “Anning’s Fossil Depot,” which was visited by many collectors and scientists who viewed and purchased her findings, often for exhibition at museums.

Although the majority of Anning’s important finds were in the area of vertebrates, such as the plesiosaur, Anning made other notable discoveries concerning invertebrates. In 1826, Anning found a sac containing what she believed to be dried ink inside of a belemnite fossil—a creature that is substantially similar to a squid. Anning’s finding eventually led scientists to conclude that belemnites had used ink as a defense mechanism, much in the way that squids do. In 1824, Anning suggested to colleague William Buckland that so-called “bezoar stones,” small fossils found inside of ichthyosaur skeletons, were actually fossilized feces. Buckland agreed with Anning, and when he announced his findings and named the stones coprolites, he publicly credited Anning.

Importantly, however, it was not without some difficulty that Anning built her reputation as a fossilist and paleontologist. For example, after Anning discovered the plesiosaur, French anatomist Georges Cuvier expressed doubt as to the veracity of Anning’s finding. Furthermore, although many of Anning’s fossils were placed in museums and became famous in their own right, many times Anning’s name was not even attached to the exhibition, and the donator of the specimen would not credit Mary for her role as a paleontologist. Simply stated, while alive, Anning did not receive much of the credit for the work that she did and the important findings that she made.

Anning began to endure financial difficulties later in her career. Although she was never wealthy, a decreasing demand in fossils began to affect her finances. She discovered and sold a full plesiosaur in 1830, but it was not enough to protect her finances from an unsuccessful investment around that time. By 1835, she had lost much of her savings. In response, Buckland convinced the British Association for the Advancement of Science to award Anning a pension in recognition of her contributions to science and geology. The pension provided her a measure of financial stability.

Anning died of breast cancer on March 9, 1847, at the age of forty-seven. She never married and had no children. Because of her illness, her work decreased in her final years. During her lifetime, Anning never received the acclaim that she rightfully deserved. She was a woman ahead of her time, working as a paleontologist during a time when educated English men dominated the fields of Earth science and paleontology. Anning was not known outside of the small scientific community in the Dorset Coast. Following her death, the Geological Society donated a stained glass window in Anning’s honor to the local parish church. She was named the first honorary member of the Dorset County Museum.

Impact

It is difficult to overstate the impact that Anning’s work had on the scientific community, especially with respect to paleontology. When Anning began her work, paleontology was not universally recognized as a science. It was widely thought of as “collecting,” or “beachcombing.” Anning’s work as a paleontologist changed the amount of significance people attributed to fossils. Anning grew up poor, was essentially self-educated, and was a woman scientist who worked during a period in which women could not vote, and when the scientific community was male-dominated. She did not receive credit for many of her discoveries and some of her findings were questioned by certain members of the scientific community.

As the field of paleontology developed over the twentieth century, Anning was accorded more respect. During her lifetime, the prevailing view of the Earth was based on the historically religious belief that no form of life existed before human beings. Anning’s discoveries paved the way for the concept of extinction—that there were species of mammals, reptiles, and fish that existed and died off long before humans inhabited the Earth. Accordingly, Anning’s work collecting fossils led to the creation of paleontology as a recognized and important scientific endeavor. Her body of work stands as a testament to self-determination. Without formal education, or any background in science, Anning became an influential paleontologist.

Bibliography

Emling, Shelley. The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World. New York: Palgrave, 2009. Print. Provides a scholarly exploration of Anning’s life, also offering scientific insights into the significance of the fossils she discovered. Index; footnotes.

Goodhue, Thomas. FossilHunter: The Life and Times of Mary Anning (1799–1847). Bethesda, MD: Academia, 2004. Print. Presents a biography of Anning, detailing her professional accomplishments and personal life. Index; bibliography.

Torrens, Hugh. “Mary Anning (1799–1847) of Lyme; ‘The Greatest Fossilist the World Ever Knew.’” British Journal for the History of Science 28.3 (Sept. 1995): 257–84. Print. Offers a transcript of an address delivered to the British Society for the History of Science by its then-president Torrens, discussing Anning’s contributions to science and paleontology.