Just The Story: Mary Anning
Just The Story: Mary Anning
All the story, no redacted man
This one’s just the story. If you’re looking for the comedic version of this story, click:
We all know a little bit more about dinosaurs due to 1800s paleontologist Mary Anning. Slide into something more comfortable and get ready for a story.
Mary was born in Lyme Regis, United Kingdom on May 21st 1799. Her family was poor and her opportunities for life were extremely limited by this. Actually, her opportunity to even live at all was limited by this as so many poor children died from lack of healthcare, shelter or food.
Mary’s dad was a carpenter, but he also earned money selling fossils he dug out of cliffs. A skill he taught to Mary. Her parents couldn’t afford school for her. She learned from the cliffs and sand.
Unfortunately her father fell off a cliff while fossil hunting and during recovery fell ill of tuberculosis. He passed away when she was only 11, leaving just her, her mom and her brother. Despite her father’s fall, Mary continued to dig fossils. After selling an ammonite to a rich lady, she realized that she could help support her family this way.
It was incredibly dangerous work. The cliffs could give way at any moment and the tide could trap her and sweep her to her death. Still she persisted. What other choice did she have?
In 1811 her brother Joseph found an enormous skull. Mary was determined to find the rest of the body, and she did. She painstakingly chipped away at the rock to free the skeleton. This enormous creature measured 5.2 meters long!
They sold it for £23 (approximately 15,000 pounds in today’s money) That’s like $18,000 if you speak American. At the time, newspapers called it a crocodile, but later its species was named Ichthyosaur. People were pissed about this discovery because God would never have created something that would go extinct. Obviously!
She continued to dig and sell fossils. Eventually, in 1826 she was able to open her own shop, Annings Fossil Depot! Mary wasn’t just interested in the money. She was a scientist. Despite her lack of money barring her from accessing the education allowed to the elite, she knew more about dinosaurs than most of the people that bought fossils from her.
She made many well educated friends who would borrow her texts and scientific papers of which she would copy it into her notes, adding brilliant drawings of her own. She kept digging and selling fossils. Her work paid off landing her the first Plesiosaur and the first Pterosaur.
Problem is, she’s a woman and she’s poor. The gentlemen scholars buying from her often steal her work and claim credit. Although she died without the fame she deserved, now, she’s celebrated and remembered as an eminent paleontologist.